Neon Genesis Armored Core
by Twisted Fun Stuff Guy
Summary: With the Angels defeated, NERV is not destroyed, but disbanded. With the EVA Project aside, a different mecha takes to the battlefield, with Shinji Ikari getting involved in it all. Rating may change due to future content
1. Chapter 1: Initiation

Good day, ladies and gents. Well, this is kind of my first fan fiction (and probably my last, don't worry) so don't be too harsh on the critisizm. In case you couldn't tell, this is an Armored CoreXEvangelion Crossover, so you know who is going to be piloting what. However, considering the two timeframes of Eva and AC, I forced them to compromise on both time and scenario. Also, ifyou see any mistakes, please let me know.

Neon Genesis Armored Core

2015 - Angels 2-18 attack. Around this time, the first MT is developed and mass produced.

2016 - NERV is disbanded, while MTs are adopted by various countries, including the United States, Germany, Japan, and Asia.

2017 - SEELE collaborates with a third party organization to begin a new project, based off the MT prototypes.

2020 - The first Armored Core (AC) is developed. Its first training exercise consisted of 5 MTs and three turret placements. The AC was virtually unscarred in the encounter.

2022 - Improvements were made in the AC field, and soon were able to be made from the ground up by simply attaching each part of the body separately.

2022 - Seele disbanded due to controversy as to where the project should go, and with their power developed their own companies.

2023 - The world is ravaged with war. Soon, countries became obsolete as alliances were broken and borders crossed. The only authority that exists at this point is the companies established by the disbanded Seele members.

2025 - The Raven's Nest is established, where ACs are the main force. The pilots are Ravens, mercenaries who take on any job that the companies offer them.

2026-2028 - Plot hole

2029 - Raven's Nest is replaced with Global Cortex; however neither the ACs nor the Ravens have been fazed by this change. The companies formed earlier have condensed into three separate organizations: Mirage, Crest, and Kisaragi.

2030 - Present.

00000

Chapter 1: Initiation/First Blood

00000

"_I'll go over the exercise one more time_." the instructor says, "_Eliminate all of the terrorist MTs in the area. If you go out of the area of operations, you have officialy abandoned the mission_."

"Yes sir." the pilot replies. He goes over his weapons set up one more time, although his rifle and single missile launcher isn't worth checking up on. Shinji sits back in the seat, closing his eyes for a second before the instructor pops up again on the radio. "_We have arrived at the mission site_."

"_I'll do my best!" _the AC pilot next to him says, in the same kind of AC he is in.

"Here we go," Shinji mutters to himself.

"_Dropping ACs_," the instructor says, "_good luck_."

The two steel-colored ACs drop to the ground as though they were rocks. Rocks with guns. And radar.

"_This is Apple Boy, moving out_." The other test pilot said.

"_This is Star Crossed, engaging targets_." Shinji announced.

Both AC's began to boost jump across the city, firing their rifles and missiles at each enemy they encountered. Soon, the two AC's were split away from each other, leaving Shinji to fend for himself. On his right were two MTs, both reverse-jointed with machine gun mounts, firing on Shinji's position. Just before the MTs' guns made contact with Shinji's AC, he boosted up into the air and fired his missile launcher at each MT, one at a time. The units go down, and Shinji lands and begins to boost hop to Apple Boy's position.

_"I could use some help over here!" _Apple Boy shouts to Shinji.

"Alright, I'm coming, hang on!" he responds. He looks at his radar to determine what the trouble is. Only a few meters from his position, Shinji determines that Apple Boy is surrounded by four MTs. _I guess he does need help,_ Shinji thinks.

Boosting above a building, Shinji fires three rounds of his rifle and brings two MTs down. He lands right next to Apple Boy, who finishes off one with his rifle and prepares his missile launcher to polish off the second. Shinji boosts backwards, lands right behind the AC, and uses his laser sword to split the MT in two perfect halves.

The instructor pops up on the radio once more. _"Looks like all targets have been neutralized. Good work boys--!"_

"What's wrong? Sir?" Shinji inquires, taking note that the instructor cut himself off, while Apple Boy was still congratulating himself on a job well done.

It was short lived though, as the instructor's voice comes up on the radio again, although not as calm as he was before. _"Gents, you're mission has been updated. There has been a report that there two enemy ACs in the area."_

Apple Boy doesn't take the news lightly, as he yells a couple of profane words he thinks are under his breath. _"Okay, who is it?" _Apple Boy demands, already sounding upset.

_"Looks like its AC Einhander and AC Flashback." _The instructor regrettably informs the two pilots. _"He has not contacted us as to why he is in the testing area. Your orders are to hold him off until back up reaches the area of operations."_

_"You're kidding, right? Just because I'm not a Raven yet doesn't mean I know what Einhander is. We don't stand a chance! What kind of a test IS this?!"_

"This is not part of the test," Shinji cuts in, completely sure of himself. "This is real."

Apple Boy then boosts into the air and lands on the top of one of the buildings. _"Fine, I'll snipe from up here, you cover them on the ground!"_ he orders.

_"You are in no position to be giving commands, Apple Boy!" _The instructor yells, _"Now just do what I say and--"_

"I'm picking up a blip on my radar," Shinji announces, bringing his rifle to bear. "I'm going in."

_"No, don't--"_ Shinji shuts off the frequency to the plane above, leaving only contact with Apple Boy and the enemy ACs advancing on his position. _I mustn't runaway_, he thinks to himself. _I WON'T runaway_.

000

"NERV disbanded?" Misato says.

"Yes. It appears man has advanced further in tools for war than we expected." Fuyutski explains, "So NERV has been issued as obsolete by Congress and has issued our extinction."

2016, one year after the second angel attack. Fuyutski is talking with Misato in a giant room with strange hieroglyphics on the wall, AKA Gendo Ikari's office. Misato, standing opposite of Commander Ikari's desk, makes a twitching motion with her eyelid when Fuyutski's sentence ends. "So this is it? After the fight with Zeurel we're tossed aside? And we are fighting for these people?"

"_Were_ fighting, yes." Fuyutski corrects, "But we can't compete with what the companies have--"

"Sir, if I may interrupt, those guys did nothing but build a robot that can hold a gun and fly."

"Indeed, the Armored Core Project is under par with the Evangelions." Gendo agrees, "There have been no reports of any kind of defense that resembles an AT Field. However, we have been wanted to be eliminated as quickly as possible. They only needed an excuse."

"So they would rather depend on some new toys than NERV?" Misato questions, hiding her rage quite well."

"Correct." Gendo states. Misato closes her eyes for a moment, before finally opening her eye and saluting to the commander before walking out.

When the Commander and Sub-Commander were finally alone, Fuyutski finally asks the commander, "Do you really think that it should end like this, Ikari? What about Adam?"

"Adam will come with us. As for our ending, this is merely a new beginning."

"A begging that leads to salvation? Or damnation?"

"The future is never set, Fuyutski. In any case, I would rather take our spoils and retreat than have to face SEELE."

"Indeed, had we not been disband, we would surely have fallen victim to the Eva Series."

"And Adam would have revealed its true form."

00

"So, what will you do now?" Shinji asks, as he and Rei sit on a bench next to the ER room that Asuka resides in NERV.

"Rei?"

Rei had been looking down on the floor, pondering the very question Shinji had proposed, until Shinji had called out her name. She raised her head and was now looking into his eyes. "I do not know."

"Oh..."

The two were quiet for sometime. The hallway was empty, which wasn't unusual. It was usually busy during an Angel attack, but now it was quiet, with all the lab equipment packed up and shipped out already. Suddenly, Rei pipes up. "What will they do with the Second?"

"Huh?"

"The Second, what will happen to her?"

Shinji looks down to the floor, unsure of what to say. He was never really informed on the situation in the first place. "Well," he began, "I guess they'll move her back to Germany, and see if they can get her out of her comatose state."

"I see..." Rei looks at the name on the door. **A. Langley Soryu**. "...that is good."

_Well, if you consider that good..._ Shinji thinks.

"What about you?" Rei inquires.

"Me? Well...I guess I'm not sure where I'll go, either. Since I'm no use anymore I could always go back home...to my Aunt's and Uncle's. But I don't want to go back."

"Have you heard of the AC Project?"

"AC? What could they possibly do with Air Conditioning?"

Rei did not laugh nor frown. Her face remained neutral, as always. "Ask Major Katsuragi. She'll know." With that, Rei left.

Shinji looked a bit bewildered as she saw Rei walk down the hall and into an elevator. "That was...the most she's ever said to me in one sitting..." he said to himself.

000

"This is Fixer, engaging the targets."

"_Fixer, let's fall back! I just--_"

"You already told me once, Bouquet." Fixer interrupted the other AC pilot, "Rest assured, milady, it won't happen."

"_But Fixer--"_

"They're greenhorns, Bouquet. What's the most they could do?" he jests.

00

Shinji activates the over boost on his AC and braces himself for the impact. The adrenaline rush he feels next reminds him of the days in the EVA as he rushes through the city streets, advancing towards the two targets. He turns left on a street corner, and suddenly he is hit by ground torpedoes.

"Aagh!"

00

"See, what'd I tell you? A little Raven who hasn't flapped his wings yet."

"_I just don't get why they want him so badly..."_

"As long as it pays, I could care less."

"_That's the typical mercenary motto."_

"That's the Raven's creed, darling."

"_Since it looks like you're not having any trouble, I'm going to step out of this one."_

"Fine, more payout for me."

"_Come back to us alive."_

"Yeah, yeah." Fixer says half-heartedly, now focused on the beating of the prey AC. "Alright, give me a reason to pay my deduction fee, pal."

00

Shinji boosts behind a building to avoid an incoming multi-warhead missile. He quickly turns around and fires a missile in retaliation. He is soon greeted by Einhander's ground torpedoes again. Shinji boosts jumps into the air to avoid them, but is greeted by another multi-warhead missile. His AC lands on its back with a thud.

"_AC pilot Star Crossed,"_ the pilot spoke, _this is AC pilot Fixer, AC name Einhander. Our employers have asked that you be returned to them alive. However, if you either resist or piss me off, they have given me the option of hacking all your limbs off your body, with the exception of your head."_

Shinji smirks a little as he stands his AC up. "Well, you're quite generous. Well, let me think on that for a second." Without a second to give, Shinji lifts up the rifle and hits Einhander's head part dead on.

00

"Gah, shit!" The force from the shot had scrambled not only his display screen, but his radar as well. It took three seconds to restore his visual, but the AC in front of him was now gone.

"The hell? Where'd you go?"

"_Did you know that dogs can't look up?"_

As the radar on Einhander was restored, Fixer realized too late that the AC was right on top of him and descending from 150 feet above him.

00

Shinji fired two rifle shots as he descended quickly, then activated his laser blade and slashed at Einhander, cutting off his ground torpedo missile launcher. He then landed right behind him, and fired a small missile at the cockpit. Letting his missile reload, he slices at the cockpit again, possibly damaging the boosters.

"_G-God damn it! How did you know where to shoot to blur out my radar!?"_

Shinji stopped his barrage of boom and slash as he watches Einhander fall on its face. He hears Fixer curse a little more and complains about his forehead bashing into the screen. "Don't know, really." Shinji finally replies. "I figured I could've just taken your head off, but I guess that's too much to hope for. All I know is that today is not my day to be stopped. When I find the person I've been looking for, then you can take me away."

Shinji leaves Fixer and heads for Apple Boy's position, who is still on the building.

"_Awesome work there!"_ Apple Boy cheers. _"I knew you could do it!"_

"Yeah, that's why you didn't do jack squat when I needed you the most." Shinji retorts. He referred to the part of the fight where he was being punished by ground and multi-warhead missiles.

"_Well, you see, uh...I...I wasn't in range! Yeah, that's it! Damn FCS..."_ Apple Boy tries to laugh, but it only comes out as a nervous chuckle. Shinji made a come-on-just-shut-up-already face as he boosted upwards onto a building. "Switching to channel 7."

"_--ssed? Star Crossed, are you there?"_

"This is Star Crossed, go ahead instructor."

"_Damn it, Ikari. Do you realize what would have happened if you had stayed down? You would've been--LOOK OUT!"_

As soon as the instructor said that, the building that Shinji was standing on began to collapse. He boost-jumped and landed on Apple Boy's perch. _"What was that? An Auto-Demo_ Apple Boy questioned.

"I don't think so." Shinji boosted off of the building and landed on the streets with a large thud. He activated the thermal sensors and scanned the smoke for any kind of life form. He picks up a yellow/red colored figure shaped like an AC. Shinji brings the starter rifle to bear, getting a lock-on on the core.

"_I...won't be defeated. I already told...her...I would come back..."_ Fixer gasped. Either one of his lungs had collapsed, or the cockpit's oxygen supply had busted, leaving little room to breathe. The AC retracted the CWG-HG-80 torpedo missiles and brought its CWM-GM14-1 hand gun to the determined target. However, the unit shut down as soon as it did so, and went into a kneeling position.

"_Well, _that_ was a little close for comfort."_ Apple Boy sighed. _"I really don't need this."_

"_That's the day in the life of a Raven."_ the instructor prompted. _"Always something new."_

"So, mission accomplished, sir?" Shinji asked, still staring at the downed AC.

The instructor did not respond to the question. _"We'll have a recovery unit take care of Fixer, right now we need to worry about how much shit you're in. Disobeying orders, cutting off communications with a superior officer, and engaging an enemy without first consulting your commander."_ Shinji could only sigh as he could determine that this was going to be his last time piloting an AC. "I understand sir, I'll gather my things--"

"_Damn right you're getting your things!"_ the instructor yelled. Shinji was surprised when the cacophony was not harsh, but positive. "Yes sir."

"_After you get your things,"_ he continued, _"you'll be bunking with pilot Bouquet and we'll give you the roster of missions--"_

"Wait, what are you talking about, sir?" Shinji was, undoubtedly, very surprised by this very strange set of orders.

"_I'm saying you're moving in. Welcome to the nest of an elite few: Ravens."_

_00000_

Auto-Demo: Set timers on a building set for demolition. A sure-fire way to clear some property to expand the Whataburger business. XD

Author's Note:

Yes, yes, Fixer was made into Shinji's bitch xD

Well, my first post on probably isn't up to snuff with everything else on here, but I still enjoyed typing this up. I've written the first three chapters ahead of time so as not to keep people waiting. But if you don't like it, please share what I could do to improve on it before I write chapter four. Latr!


	2. Chapter 2: Roommate

00000

Chapter 2: Roommate/She Saw Life Once More

00000

As Shinji finished unpacking his clothes, he looked around his new quarters. The walls were completely bland, white with a wonderful shade of white, yet completely symmetrical in its square shape. On the north side was a single bed, with the head side against the wall. On that same wall was a computer, sitting on top of a wooden desk, with a flat-screen monitor, a keyboard with keys as flat as paper, and a mouse that could fit in the palm of your hand. Opposite of the bed was the dresser he had put his clothes in and the door to the hallway, where there were many other doors leading to the living quarters of already employed Ravens. To the left of the bed was another door, possibly leading to the bathroom, he has yet to check it.

_Home sweet home_, he thought to himself. He had just finished unpacking everything out of his suitcase, with his neatly folded clothes stacked into the dresser. He didn't bring much else, other than teeth cleaning utensils, a shaving razor, and shampoo, thinking he wouldn't need those anyway. Still, he figured having a clean mouth wouldn't hurt.

He opened the door to what he guessed was the bathroom. To his left was a shower, with a green plastic curtain. His right yielded a mirror covering the entire wall and two sinks. In front of him was another door, which he figured was the closet. For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was hotter in the bathroom than in his cell. Not thinking much of it, he turned the faucet on, got his brush wet, then put toothpaste on it and began to brush. As he brushed, he stared at himself in the mirror.

Indeed, he had matured from his days as an Evangelion pilot. His eyes were more defined, sharp, as though he was sure of himself now. His hair was still black, but it had grown some. Shinji didn't bother to cut it and instead tied it all in the back. Another thing he noted was that he had not shaved since last month, and he was starting to look like a combination between his father and Asuka's crush, Kaji. He sighed through the foaming toothpaste as he knew that it was about time to shave as well. "At least I brought my razor with me he said.

As he finished up his brushing session, he figured that he might as well take a quick shower before going out for a bite to eat. He began to strip down. (For all the fan girls, I shall describe the contents of Shinji's new sexiness.) Looking in the mirror, Shinji realized that he was not as scrawny as he used to be. Although he wasn't Arnold Schwarzenegger, he could tell he had a muscular build. Judging from the size, Shinji could have probably lifted a hundred pounds over his head. _Must've been from all the exercises,_ he mused, thinking about all the physical and written tests he had to take before becoming a Raven.

Now completely naked, he pulls back the curtain and almost steps into the bathtub when his feet touched something: water and...

_Bubbles!?_ As he pulled his foot out, he noticed there was a pair of slender legs as well. Going up, he went past the private area as they were covered in bubbles and went straight to the chest area, where two coconuts greeted him. He was afraid to look at the face, but did so anyway and saw the face of a green eyed girl, with short cut brown hair with bleached tips, _smiling_ at him!

All of this happened in the span of two seconds.

"Hey!" the bubble girl began, her soothing tone of voice matching her adorable smile, "I'm almost finished, so you can shave or whatever you need to do, alright?"

Before she could complete her sentence though, Shinji had put on his clothes (forgetting his shoes, socks, and underwear), and had dashed back into his cell, slamming the door behind him. _Oh God,_ Shinji thought, _it's just like with Rei all over again._

Before he could even sit down, the computer made a "bing!" sound. He jumped before turning around to look at what had made the sound. Noticing a message box on his computer, he went over to it and read:

MESSAGE:

YOU HAVE NEW MAIL FROM: THE CONTROLLER

YOU HAVE NEW MAIL FROM: GLOBAL CORTEX

Shinji clicked on his mailbox icon and scanned through it. _Just a bunch of Spam_, he thought, _they do this to everyone I'll bet_. He closes out the two messages that contained his automatic welcome-to-the-club package, and stood up to leave when another popup, which made his heart skip half a beat:

MESSAGE:

YOU HAVE NEW MAIL FROM: MISATO KATSURAGI

The name of the recipient just about caused him to slump in his chair. He merely sat there, staring at the screen. It seemed to take forever before he finally clicked the message. He read through it intently:

Good Day, Star Crossed. As of today I will be your supervisor. In case you do not understand what this means, I will explain. I handle your mission contracts, your funds, even your spare parts for your Armored Core. In short, I'll be the maid that doesn't take crap from anyone!

_Delicate as ever,_ Shinji mused. He continued to read:

Currently, there are two missions open to you that you may choose from. One is from Mirage, the other Crest. Hurry before someone snatches them up! ;-)

-END MESSAGE-

Shinji leaned backwards in the chair, giving his back a break from leaning forward to read the message. He could hardly believe it. Misato was still around! But why is she here? That was one question Shinji could not answer. He snapped out of his thinking and noticed there was something blinking on the message Misato sent. _An attachment?_ He opened it.

The attachment was a picture. Of Misato, in a black and red dress suit. She was saluting towards him, with no expression whatsoever. Although she was wearing a black beret, bearing the Global Cortex symbol on the front, Shinji could tell that she had gotten a haircut, trimmed up to her earlobes, similar to what Ritsuko had, only it was flattened and trimmed at the edges. Although she still had the purple hair, it was faded somewhat. But that was the only sign on her anywhere that she was getting older.

Shinji scanned the picture a couple of times before finally closing out the message and putting the computer on standby. He couldn't help but think about the first time he had seen Misato. He was sent a picture; however she looked like she was on summer vacation, with short cut jeans and a yellow tank-top. Her hair just longer than her shoulders, she was leaning over and giving some love to the camera as she also got her blue car in the background. Misato had written a message on the picture, telling the young Shinji that she would pick him up...and then made an arrow pointing to her cleavage stating for him to check out the goods.

He snickered a bit about the old days gone by. Misato the guardian, Pen-pen the thermal penguin, Asuka...

_Asuka...I wonder if she's alright?_

000

Darkness loomed. No matter how far you thought you could see, all there was there was darkness. Then, a small red light shone through a rectangle shape. A little girl wearing a dress was running through the red light.

_"Look, Mama! I'm a somebody now!"_

_"They chose ME! I am an elite pilot now!"_

_Stop..._

_"Look mama!"_

_Stop it._

_"Look mama!"_

_Stop it!_

_"Look at me!"_

_STOP!_

_"Look at me!"_

_STOP, PLEASE!!_

_"Look at my face!"_

_WHY!?_

_**Don't look at her, darling.**_

Asuka slowly opened her eyes.

The sepia colored room she was in almost made her think she was still dreaming. The sun was just rising, shining through the blinds of a hospital room. As far as she could tell, Asuka was alone in the 8x10 foot room that only had the bed she laid in, a computer, and a table.

Asuka tried to swing her legs around the bed so she could go to the computer to find out what's wrong, only to realize that she wasn't going anywhere. Her legs were stone stiff, as though they were covered in drying cement.

"Hey, anyone here? Hello?" Asuka called out. Soon, one nurse came in holding a clipboard. She looked at Asuka and froze in place. "Can you give me something to eat? I'm STARVING!" Asuka begged, stretching her arms. The nurse began to turn toward the door and run out. "Wait--!" Asuka yelled, but the nurse was already out in the hall, screaming that Asuka was awake...in German.

"Uh, _okay_...Now, where am I?" Asuka questioned to herself. She was confused and hungry, and that could not lead to good thoughts. "Let's see, the last thing I remember was..." punching herself in the head, she still could not recall the events that happened prior to her coma. "Shit. Okay, let's start with what I DO remember. Alright, I'm an Eva pilot; I'm fighting the Angels with the First Child and Shinji. I live with Misato and Shinji, and...Uh...what did they look like again?"

Before she could answer the question, doctors and the nurse that came in before were now running into the room, asking her if she was alright (again, in German).

"I'm fine! I just need to get back to NERV before they get rid of me for good." Asuka jested. The doctors and nurses looked at each other with the oh-shit-she-doesn't-know faces. "What?" she asked.

"Ms. Soryu," a doctor began, "Do you know what year it is?"

"Duh!" Asuka snorted, "Its 2015 A.D.! Now get me back to my Eva!"

The doctor that spoke earlier took off his glasses. He looked down, thinking of what to say, before putting his glasses back on, looking directly at Asuka. "Ma'am, I'm sorry but, in 2015 I was still in Med-School."

"Huh, I guess I was out for a year, hm?" Asuka pouted, crossing her shoulders over her chest. As she did so, however, she noticed that her breasts had increased in size. "Actually, you've been out for...fifteen years."

"F...fif...FIFTEEN YEARS!?" Asuka shouted. All the doctors and the nurse jumped, trying to avert her fiery gaze. "WHY DIDN'T ANYONE WAKE ME UP SOONER!? SOMEONE BETTER CALL NERV AND STRAIGHTEN THIS OUT, OTHERWISE--"

"Miss Soryu! NERV disbanded fourteen years ago!" another doctor spoke up.

Asuka's expression changed from rage to a mix of anger and shock, and then just shock and confusion. "But...I was...SOMEONE GET ME A MIRROR!"

A nurse came up to her with a hand mirror you would use to apply makeup with. Asuka snatched from her hand and looked at herself. She became as pale as Rei was; her hair had grown an inch or two and was messy. She threw the mirror to the side, not caring if it belonged to the nurse, nor if it had shattered into dozens of pieces. She threw off the blanket that was covering her legs and looked to see that she had grown since her teenage days. She tried once more to get out of bed, but she only managed to fall to the floor as soon as she forced her legs to support her. "What the hell!? Why can't I move my legs!?"

"Miss Soryu, your brain has forgotten how to use its legs. This is a common side effect of a long-term comatose status." the first doctor replied, "You will have to re-teach yourself how to walk."

Although Asuka only heard half of what he said, as he was screaming her lungs out, longing for the old days once again.

000

Walking back into his cell, Shinji is carrying a bag of food back from the local store in Global Cortex. "Well, I guess if Global Cortex is a 'Nest for Ravens', then the nest has to be fed by the mother." Shinji joked at himself. However, he heard a snicker to his joke as he was locking the door behind him. Turning around slowly, he sees bubble girl (clothed in a green tank top with blue jeans, but no shoes) sitting on his bed, reading a magazine.

Shinji dropped the bag he was holding, as well as his jaw. "Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing here!?"

"Well, I _am_ your roommate." she commented, "And you _did_ get a peak of my goods."

Shinji blushed at the memory given to him and looked away. "Well, uh...I didn't know you were in there. Sorry about that." _Damn, now she'll probably want to rip my head off_, he thought, expecting the worst now.

"Nah, that's fine. It happened all the time with my last roommate." the girl said. Shinji looked back at her. She wasn't sitting on the bed anymore, but she wasn't going towards him either. She was just standing there smiling at him. Shinji felt awkward for a moment before managing a smile back. He picked his bag back up, making sure the contents weren't ruined, and walked over to the bed and put it down.

"So..." Shinji paused. Before he could think of anything to say, the girl had walked to the side of the bed he was on and sat down next to the bag. "What do we have here?" she spoke, looking into the bag. She looked up at Shinji with a you-poor-thing face. "Are you sure you're going to eat that?"

Shinji looked down at the sandwich he had just picked up and was about to eat. Then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, they made it for a reason, right?"

"Yeah, to give you really bad indigestion." the girl said, sticking her tongue out at the bag. "Tell you what, come on over to my cell, I'll treat you to something decent. 'Kay?" Shinji looked at the sandwich again, this time noticing an ant crawling around a tomato slice before disappearing into the sandwich once more.

"That sounds nice!" Shinji quickly whipped out before throwing the sandwich into the trash can next to the bed (as well as the rest of the bag).

"Great! I'll go get it ready!" she began to walk to the door before stopping and asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Shinji, Shinji Ikari."

"Hmm...The name suits you!" the girl says, smiling, "Mine is Cassandra Viles, call sign Bouquet."

Shinji nods. "Ah, alright. By the way, who was your last roommate?"

Cassandra pauses as she was opening the door to the bathroom/her cell, turns to him and greets him with a sad gaze. "William Patterson, call sign Fixer."

As she walked out, Shinji's heart sank into the Dead Sea.

00000

Cell - also referred to as a room. The term cell is mostly used by nuns and prison guards/inmates.

Author's note:

Okay, chapter 2…Isn't it lovely? Sure, it has no action, but there will be some in chapter 3, guaranteed! And remember, it's a fan fiction (and a crappy one at that), so some personalities may fluctuate.


	3. Chapter 3: Snow Fight

00000  
Chapter 3: Snow Fight/Old Acquaintances  
00000

Asuka had started out her rehabilitation process the day after she woke up. Her first few attempts were in vain, but she merely got back up and tried again. When she needed to go somewhere, she either pulled on the railing (which unfortunately dragged her hospital gown on the floor and, eventually, off, causing old people to find a nearby inhaler) or used a wheelchair.

The first weeks showed no progress whatsoever, mainly because she would not rest her body when it did need rest. However, when she finally learned that she needed to conserve her energy, she was able to walk with a crutch in a month's time.

During this learning process, Asuka was trying to remember whose faces matched to what names. So far, she had only managed to pair up Misato's and Kaji's faces. The other faces were merely blurs in her mind. Also during this time, she has been coping with the fact that NERV is gone, along with her Eva Unit 02; her reason for being.

000

Shinji had been getting used to being a full-fledged Raven. He mostly accepted missions that involved protecting cargo or a VIP, encountering little to no resistance. The missions he did accept that involved combat, he got through. But just barely.

He did manage to save up the credits he was given from the protection missions, but he has yet to pay for upgrades to his AC, which he dubbed _Berserker_. The AC still had all of its starter parts; however it was painted dark purple and maroon red all over.

If he did accept missions with another AC, they were not with his roommate. In fact, he did not want to approach the subject about Fixer and who had killed him. Shinji was not sure of what Cassandra's reaction would be if he had told her that he killed her former roommate.

But when he wasn't thinking about the deceased Raven, he and Cassandra always had a good time when they did meet up (mostly in Shinji's room, up until meal time, then they moved to Cassandra's room for instant ramen or hot dogs). Shinji didn't consider them a couple, but they were pretty close friends by the end of the month.

Shinji and Cassandra were having some curry for lunch, which Shinji made from the ingredients he got from the market. Cassandra was halfway through the meal when she puts her fork down and looks at Shinji, who's still eating 1/4 of his meal with chop sticks. "Um, Shinji, is it okay if I talk to you about something?"

He looks up from his meal to look into Cassandra's eyes. They were not happy like they usually were, but worried. "Sure, what is it?" he asked.

"Well, you see...um, you know what my AC's name is, right?" Cassandra was trying to get something out, but Shinji could tell she was being reluctant.

"Um...it's _Flashback_, right?" Shinji guesses.

"Yeah, that's right. Do you know why I named it that, Shinji?" she asks.

Now Shinji can tell she's trying to say something that she feels won't come out right, hoping that he'll guess it. "It's because you're afflicted with amnesia, right?"

"Not afflicted, cursed. But that's not the only thing," she says, taking a deep, shaky breath before continuing. "It's because I-"

The moment was soon cutoff by a beep on Cassandra's computer. The two pilots regain composure, with Shinji's usual neutral face and Cassandra's smile. _I like her a lot better when she smiles like that_, Shinji confirms. "Hang on a sec, Shinji." Cassandra says, and walks over to the computer.

As she reads the contents of the message, Shinji stands up to pick up their plates and escorting them to the trashcan. There was no kitchen to speak of in any of the rooms in Global Cortex, so Cassandra always keeps a stack of paper plates under the bed and her own fork, spoon, and knife. Shinji had brought along some chopsticks on his trip from Japan, and so used those as his utensils.

Cleaning off the fork and chopsticks so they could be used again, Shinji could hear Cassandra walking towards him. He just put down the eating utensils and is now turned to her with a concerned look on his face. "So, what's up?" Shinji asks, referring to the message.

"It's about this recent mission I took up," Cassandra says, no longer smiling but neutral in her expression, "apparently things have gotten a little bit complicated and I need a partner to deal with the changes. They're letting me pick whoever I want for the mission."

Shinji could tell what was coming up, but he figured he could ask anyway, "So, who's the pilot going to be?"

"Well, you've had a decent mission streak for awhile now, so..."

_I knew it,_ he thinks, _I'm getting picked. If I don't go with her, she'll have to pick someone else. But if I do go with her and she figures out my call sign..._

Shinji looks up at Cassandra, and then wishes he hadn't. She was looking at him with the face he couldn't say no to. The please-pretty-please-I'll-give-you-a-cookie face was too much for him. He submitted. "Alright, I'll go. What's the briefing?"

Cassandra nods, keeping her neutral expression, and begins, "The original mission was to attack a Crest base stationed in the mountains. Just to take out the security turrets along with any security MTs in the area. However, Crest has figured out client, Mirage's, plan. So what do they do? They hire a Raven. So Mirage has informed us that I should bring a buddy just in case it gets nasty. You still up to it?"

"Do I have a choice?" Shinji laughs. "You always have a choice, Shinji. You've just got to make the right one!" Cassandra replies, now smiling.

000

"She's been making some progress since last month."

"_Some_ progress? Look at her! She's practically standing on her own two feet without a crutch!"

"Well, she is quite determined, I'll give her that."

Three doctors are sitting in a conference room, discussing Asuka's status and arguing if they should let her go or keep her for reassurance. The first doctor, the one that broke the news to the former Eva pilot, made the request to let her go. "Because of this steady pace, it's my opinion that she may be able to readapt outside this hospital."

"You're saying she could learn as she went along?" the second doctor inquires.

"Gentleman, you're both aware that that is a risk we should not take." the third doctor intervenes, completely against letting the girl out of the hospital. For professional or perverted purposes, no one knows. "If she were to get into an accident, guess who would be to blame?"

"Again, I believe she would be able to readapt given her current pace," the first doctor argues, "Besides, she's been holed up in this hospital for too long. We should let the bird out of its cage."

The third doctor rubs his eyes, the looks back at the picture of Asuka when she was still 15, posing for a school picture. "A bird born in a pet shop does not know where to fly. Where would she go? This world has changed since 2015! Angels are no longer a threat. The only fighting going on now is between Crest, Mirage, and Kisaragi!"

The second doctor cuts in between the two. "True, a bird knows not where to go when it has been sheltered most of its existence. However, one bird can adapt to any environment, scavenging what it can to survive."

The third doctor looks at the second with distaste. "I don't think that is a viable course of action--"

The first doctor holds up Asuka's medical portfolio folder in his hand. "She has driven giant robots before. I think it's time to get her back into the profession, wouldn't you say?"

With that, the doctor throws down the folder, paper skidding across the table to the third doctor, Asuka's medical paper facing him. The third doctor looks at the two and realizes their minds are set. "Very well, then. Asuka Langley Soryu has been rehabilitated and is free to go."

00

"Say what?" Asuka asks, not quite sure if she heard the nurse right.

"That's right, ma'am. It was approved just yesterday. You're free to go after you sign these forms."

The nurse hands Asuka a clipboard with a bunch of information she has to fill out about herself that even _she_ doesn't know yet. Asuka looks at the clipboard, flipping through the pages until an application form catches her eye. "Excuse me, nurse. What's this?"

"Oh, that was a recommendation by one of the doctors. It's completely up to you whether you become a Raven or not--"

"Wait. What's a Raven?" Asuka asks.

The nurse sighs before continuing. "A Raven is basically a mercenary. You know, gun for hire."

"But I've never handled a gun before, only on an Eva!"

The nurse goes to the computer screen and pulls up a web browser. "Have you heard of a machine called Armored Core, Asuka?"

She doesn't quite make the connection. "Armored…Core? No, no I haven't what does that have to do with being a Raven?"

As if to answer Asuka's question, the nurse pulls up a news article with the headline "Kisaragi Survives Mirage Ambush in Desert". The nurse looks up at Asuka. "Normally, Kisaragi is one of the weakest companies that can hardly hold a candle up to the other two companies, Mirage and Crest."

Asuka raises an eyebrow. "So how do you know about that?"

"Everyone knows about it nowadays," the nurse replies, "That's all people talk about, because nothing else is going on in the world. But that's not what I wanted to show you. You see this picture?" The nurse points to a humanoid figure, with a headpiece similar to Unit 00, but with bulky arms, a pointed torso and legs that made the figure look like it cut off its previous legs and landed on a tank. "That's an Armored Core."

Staring at the picture, Asuka could make out something that looked like a machine gun on its right arm, a flamethrower on the left, and a long-barreled cannon on each of its shoulders. "That's a...Armored Core?"

"AC for short." the nurse corrects, "This machine helped Kisaragi stand up to the competition. According to this story, it says they 'are the powerhouse that can change the course of history'."

Asuka, who was now leaning into the screen and practically putting her nose against it, was now more interested in the machine than anything else. "So, they're like an Eva?"

"In a sense, yes." the nurse replies, still trying to figure out what an "Eva" was. Asuka pushes her arm against the desk to help straighten her body out. Catching herself before falling, she stands firmly on her two legs, asking the nurse, "Do you know where to go to apply?"

000

"What do you mean you haven't changed your AC?" Cassandra shouts.

The entire team of mechanics in the garage now looks at the pair of AC pilots who were talking about a small problem with the man's AC: it was still the default parts given to him.

"Well, if it isn't broke, don't fix it, right?" Shinji nervously says. Cassandra just runs her hand through her hair and sighs. She wasn't angry, per say, just a bit surprised. At least, that's what it looks like. Underneath, though, Shinji could tell she was a fraction disappointed. "Well, no worries! We'll just get you some new parts!"

Cassandra starts shouting out commands to the mechanics who were staring at the two for sometime now. "Alright, listen up, I need these parts on the double! Starting with the head, we'll go with..."

As she shouts out which pieces of the body she needs, Shinji watches as the mechanics go to work, calling in parts from around Global Cortex. Once the parts were called in, a hole in the side of the wall opens up, and out comes the head part that Cassandra asked for, being grasped by a giant clamp, similar to the claw machines at the mall.

"Are you sure I can pay for all this?" Shinji questions, "I've only got 700,000 credits to pay for parts, let alone weapons!"

"Don't worry about it too much," Cassandra smiled, "If you run low on funds, I'll help pay for your weapon load out, okay?" With that, she continues to hand out orders to the mechanics, now asking for the internal parts of the machine, starting with the generator.

_My weapon load out? I don't want to put her in a pinch as well!_ Shinji thinks, worried about her own funds as well as his own.

000

**Global cortex**

The nest for Ravens

Apply Today!

As she looked up at the sign hanging above a building, which was a part of the marketplace off the corner of the hospital (ironically), Asuka walks through the door with her application form the nurse gave her.

Unlike the DMV, the place is nearly devoid of life, save for the middle-aged man sitting at the reception desk and two young boys filling out their application forms on a desk to the right of the room. Asuka walks to the reception desk and sets the application form on the desk, stirring the man on the other side awake. "I want to be a Raven." Asuka prompts.

Still rubbing his eyes, the man speaks a bit of gibberish, and then looks directly at Asuka. "You want to be a Raven, you say? Well then, take one of these forms and...Uh..." the man just realizes that the form is already placed in front of him. "Oh, I see. You've done that already. Well then, let's get started on the physical. But before you go in the back, we'll need your call sign."

Asuka gives the man a confused look, which he takes in. "It's what you're referred to by during combat. Some people use the name of an animal, or emotion, or even a description--"

"I get it." Asuka puffs, "Well, I guess I'll stick with...Deus Metal?"

She felt really stupid now. _Deus Metal? What the hell kind of name is that? No way is that an alias to be referred to as a pilot!_ While she was thinking, however, the man had put in the call sign on a computer.

"Okay, Deus Metal, you're all set." the man says to the newly christened Asuka, "Report to room six for your physical."

Asuka nodded, walked over to the door and went through. Going down a narrow hallway similar to a dentist's office, she finally finds room six and opens the door.

"Asuka?" the doctor says, with a tone of surprise in her voice.

"Ritsuko!?"

The two stare at each other for the longest time. Asuka couldn't believe what Ritsuko looked like now. Her hair was no longer bleached yellow and was now a shade of violet similar to her mother's hair, but it too has grown and was now past her shoulders, still keeping the ruffles it had in the NERV days. "My goodness, when did you wake up?" Ritsuko asks.

"Only about a month ago," Asuka replies, taking her seat on the nursing bed. "I can't believe how much has changed! We're not at the flying car stage just yet, but still..."

The now middle-aged doctor had just grabbed a new form, just for the physical procedure. "Yes, it appears that we're advancing quite nicely these days." she says, "Especially in the warfare business. I'm curious though, why did you want to become a Raven?"

The redhead says nothing, and so drops her gaze down to the floor. "Well, it isn't my job to pry, only to examine and move along." Ritsuko says, giving up on trying to make conversation. "Just stick your arm out for me."

As Asuka does so, she asks the doctor, "So why are you here, Ritsuko? I thought you would've been a hospital doctor or--OUCH!"

A sharp pain went through her right arm. Looking to see what it was, she glimpses something that looks like a gun, but with a fine needle at the end. Ritsuko takes the needle out faster than it went in, and slides her chair over to the computer, dropping a tube of blood inside a shaft installed in the computer. Ritsuko turns to Asuka as the computer starts making an analysis of the blood. "Well, I suppose it would've been alright." Ritsuko began, "But I just needed to relax, so I supposed being an office doctor wouldn't be too bad. The pay's decent and it's easier than working on the Evangelion."

The computer spits out some paper with medial information printed on it. "That's it, you can go."

Asuka blinks. "Really? That's it? No breathing test? Urine sample? Nothing?"

"A single DNA strand can tell you thousands of things about the human body," Ritsuko points out, "I just took hundreds of thousands of that DNA and analyzed everything I needed to know. Like you said, everything is changing. I just hope you can adapt."

Asuka nods and proceeds to the door. Before she closes it, however, Ritsuko stops her. "Oh, when you get to Global Cortex..."

"Hm?" Asuka turns around, leaving enough space in the door to see Ritsuko Akagi through. "Would you say hi to Rei for me?"

000

"So, is that everything?" Cassandra asked the mechanic. "Hand me the list."

**AC Berserker**

**Head: MHD-MM/004**

**Core: CCL--01-NER**

**Arms: CAL-44-EAS**

**Legs: MLM-SS/ORC**

**Booster: MBT-OX/002**

**FCS: VREX-ND-2**

**Generator: CGP-ROZ**

**Radiator: RGI-KD99**

**Inside: N/A**

**Extension: N/A**

**Back Unit:**

**Right: CWM-GM14-1**

**Left: CWM-VM36-4**

**Arm Unit:**

**Right: CWG-ARF-120**

**Left: KLB-TLS/SOL**

Cassandra handed the pad back to the mechanic. "Looks like it's all there. Whaddya think, Shinji?"

The machine looks completely different now. No longer sporting the default equipment, inside and out, it truly looks like a Raven's AC. With the three shot rifle and the missile launchers in the back, he couldn't help but marvel at the creation Cassandra put together. But something was bugging him and decides to ask, "Um, how much is this going to cost me?"

Cassandra asks the mechanic the same question, in which he replies, "Well, counting everything, it comes right down to 1,012,100 credits." Cassandra nods. "Well, that isn't too bad, is it Shin-- SHINJI!"

The twenty-nine year old Raven had passed out on the floor. Cassandra kneels over him and starts patting his face, and then full-out slaps him. "Ow!" was the response as Shinji sits up, rubbing his left cheek. "Jeez, don't you have any smelling salts?"

Cassandra blinks, and rubs the back of her head. "Oh, um...whoops! Sorry, impulse reaction, yeah?" She laughs as a mechanic runs over with what was needed only a moment ago. "I don't need it _now_, thanks though." Shinji says. The mechanic nods and goes back to work.

"So, yeah...about the price...I don't think I can afford all of that," Shinji says, "And I don't want to bankrupt you or anything, so..."

"Don't sweat it!" Cassandra replies, "We'll split the cost, and you can owe me later, 'Kay?" Shinji looks at her, then at _Berserker_, then back at her again, and nods. "Alright. By the way, what's your AC look like? I haven't seen it before."

With that, Cassandra takes Shinji with her to her own garage, where her light-ish red AC is being tuned up by another set of mechanics, only there are not as many as in Shinji's garage. "Hey, twiddle dee and twiddle dum!" Cassandra shouts, "Is my AC ready to rock or what?"

One mechanic pops up from the back of the head of the AC and makes a saluting motion. The feminine mechanical worker had long, pink hair with pale white skin, which seemed to contradict the average mechanic in a sense. "She's ready to go when you are, ma'am!" she yells from across the garage.

Another mechanic looks up from a rocket back part, and also salutes. She showed the same features as the first girl, but with sour blue hair instead of pink. "Yup yup! All set!" she jeers.

"Alright, thanks!" Cassandra says, "By the way, can I get the schematics for _Flashback_? I'll bring it right back!"

"Okie Dokie!" the two yell at the same time. The blue haired girl runs from the rockets and onto a conveyor belt and begins to go down, while the pink haired mechanic just jumps down from the head onto the core, jumps down onto the quad-leg and goes down the leg as though it were a slide at the park. The blue mechanic just reaches the bottom and grabs a clipboard, meanwhile the pink haired girl somersaults in the air and lands feet first in front of Cassandra and Shinji. "I'm wide open!" she shouts to the blue haired girl.

"Catch!" And with that, the clipboard is sent flying. Realizing that it would go over her head, the pink haired girl jumps up and grabs it, just before it has a chance to whiz by. "Touchdown!" she shouts. She is about to slam it to the ground like a football, raising the clipboard over her head. Cassandra grabs it from her hand before she does so, having the pink haired girl throwing her arm and, because of the strength of her arm, her entire body to the ground.

"Thanks." Cassandra says before the _thud_ on the ground. "Here you go, Shinji." As she hands the clipboard to Shinji, he stares at the two strange mechanics. The blue haired girl was now trying to get the other up, but ends up on the ground with the pink haired girl as well. "They're not--?"

"Nah, they're just clumsy." Cassandra says, cutting Shinji off. Sighing, he looks at the clipboard.

**AC Flashback**

**Head: MHD-RE/008**

**Core: MCM-MX/002**

**Arms: CAW-SDBZ-108**

**Legs: MLF-RE/006**

**Booster: CBT-01-UN4**

**FCS: VREX-ST-2**

**Generator: MGP-VE905**

**Radiator: RMR-SA77**

**Inside: N/A**

**Extension: RMR-SA77**

**Back Unit:**

**Right: CWR-S50**

**Left: CWR-S50**

**Arm Unit:**

**Right: N/A**

**Left: N/A**

As Shinji reads over the schematics, the two girls finally get themselves upright, saluting to Cassandra as if to make up for their childish behavior. Shinji hands the schematics back to the girls when they finally face him. "Thank ya kind sir!" the blue haired one says.

"No problem," Shinji replies, "I'm Shinji Ik--"

"SHINJI IKARI!? This sexy man-taco is Shinji Ikari, Miss!?" the pink one shouts. Cassandra slaps her hand over the pink haired loudmouth, as Shinji says "S-Sexy man-taco!?"

Cassandra just makes a nervous smile and shrugs, while the blue haired one just makes it worse. "Oh yeah!" she says, "Miss Bouquet is always makin' remarks about you, Smexy Ikari!" At that point, Cassandra's and Shinji's faces were so red you would've mistaken them for dodge balls.

After the storm blew over, Shinji reported back to his garage, leaving Cassandra to tend with her own AC. "Smexy...Ikari?" he wonders aloud, as he steps through the door to the docking bay for his AC.

"Star Crossed, sir!" a mechanic yells from across the garage, just putting a phone on the receiver. "Call from the operator, she says it's time to roll!"

Shinji looks behind him to make sure the door was closed so Cassandra didn't hear that, then waves at the mechanic as if to say "Yeah, I get it." He climbs into the lift and is ascended up towards the core to his new AC, hoping he would get used to the changes fast. "Thanks, guys." he says to the mechanics on the lift with him. He steps off and walks across the bridge leading to the pilot seat of the AC.

00

"_So, you ready?_" Bouquet says over the radio.

"Yeah..." Shinji says, gulping. They were already docked onto the jet that was to take them to the mission site. "Just five more miles to go," Shinji says, stretching his gloves as though to make sure they wouldn't fall off during combat. "I wonder who the pilot is of this AC we're supposed to be expecting."

"_I try not to dwell on it_," Bouquet says, "_just because, in my opinion, if I think if it's a friend, I might not fight as hard as if it was someone I didn't know_."

Shinji thinks on this logic for a second before replying, "That makes a bit of sense, but still..." regardless of the sage advice given to him, he can't help but think of who would be his enemy. _Kensuke? Touji? Asuka, even? No, she's still in a coma..._

"_We're almost at the mission area. Looks like a couple of MTs, a couple of security turrets, and...Strange, the birthday present hasn't come in yet_." a female voice says over the AC pilots' channel.

Shinji recognizes the voice in a second. He switches the channel to the frequency on the jet. "Misato, is that you!?"

"_Shinji?_" the voice responds, "_Wait a second, what are you--?_"

"_Enough chit-chat_," another operator cuts in, "_Dropping AC's _Berserker _and_ Flashback_ now_."

As the two AC's fall from the helicopter, missiles are already heading towards them. "_Take _e_vasive action!_" Bouquet shouts. The two AC's immediately boost to the side to avoid the oncoming missiles. _Flashback_ manages to use its booster extension to avoid two other missiles and lands safely on the ground, while _Berserker_ avoids one missile, but takes one to the right arm, nearly dropping his machine gun. The two AC's split up, with _Flashback_ taking the left and _Berserker_ taking the right.

Encountering two grasshopper MTs, the pink AC switches to her rockets, firing one round at a time. A rocket hits an MT in the leg, blowing it off completely. It topples over, knocking over the second MT before it had a chance to fire. Because they have no arms, they were considered immobilized. "Jenga!" the proud pilot shouts before boosting out of the way of a turret blast.

_Berserker_, on the other hand, didn't get a lucky break. Encountering two grasshopper MTs and an MT that resembled an AC in some aspects, Shinji began to fire his machine gun at the three machines, merely running to the left. The bulky MT, almost unaffected by the shots, aims the bazooka equipped on its right arm and fires. _Berserker_ just barely jumps out of the way, letting the shot hit the base behind him.

"_Remember, we're high up in the mountain area, so it will be harder to overheat your AC,"_ Misato says over the channel, "_but keep in mind that your generators need to pump even more power to the AC due to the low temperature, so boosting for long amounts of time will leave you grounded and out of power for approximately ten seconds."_

"Shit!is Bouquet's reply. After the newsflash, _Flashback_'s aerial rocket blasting is cut short as Bouquet lets the AC land heavy on the metal pavement, giving the grasshopper MT a chance to fire its machine gun turrets at the quad-legged contraption. "Oh, you're going to wish you never did that," She grimly says, shaking off the shots and firing a rocket straight through the pilot seat of the MT. _Flashback_ strafes towards another MT, leaving the other to fall in sparks and fire.

Slicing through a bipedal MT with its laser blade, _Berserker_ boosts to the left to avoid a missile fired from a defense turret. "Whoa, I'm getting the hang of this! I can't believe I didn't upgrade sooner!" Shinji says, switching to his machine gun once more to wipe out the defense turret in a flurry of bullets. "_Don't let your guard down; we still haven't seen the enemy AC_." Bouquet cautions.

"Yeah, I know." Shinji confirms, removing the last MT with a laser blade slice across the cockpit, assuring the victory. _Berserker_ boosts around the corner to meet _Flashback_ just blasting away a turret with her back left rocket. The AC turns around, facing its partner. _"Aw, you beat me._" Bouquet teases.

Before Shinji could respond, a panicking Misato is heard through the two pilots' ACs. _"Look out, you've got incoming! Bouquet, Star Crossed, take evasive action!_" Shinji looks at his radar and notices a barrage of missiles heading straight for _Flashback_. "Bouquet, move!"

_"Wait, Star Cro--!?"_ Bouquet says, before she's knocked back by the barrage of missiles, sending her AC crashing into the base wall. "Bouquet!" Shinji cries, boosting into the air to avoid a salvo of missiles.

_"Bouquet is fine, but her AC is offline._" Misato confirms, "_You'll have to take care of the AC heading your way._"

Star Crossed lands on the ground and turns toward the source of the missiles. _Judging from the angle, those were vertical missiles,_ he hypothesizes. Before he has a chance to boost up to the cliff, a blue/orange AC jumps from atop the cliff and lands, using its hover legs to stabilize itself. The blue/orange AC is equipped with a bronze-looking machine gun, with a laser blade that could actually be considered a flying energy disc when used, and a dual vertical missile launcher.

Shinji takes a picture with the head part of the AC before switching to his multi-warhead missile. "_You won't get far with that, pilot Star Crossed_." the enemy pilot says in a mono-tone voice.

"No..." Star Crossed says, his pupils getting smaller by a tad-bit. "REI!?"

00000

Author's Note:

Oh my, friendly faces everywhere! I guess this is where the Eva part sticks in, yeah? Still, this one was a bit longer than I anticipated, moi bad!  
I'm not sure when I'll get finished with this next chapter, though...just keep an eye out for it!


	4. Chapter 4: Flower's Dilema

00000

Chapter 4: Flower's Dilema/Settle In With Us

00000

The purple-red AC known as _Berserker_ boosts to the right to avoid the fiery string of bullets fired by the blue-orange hover AC, following it's opponent no matter where it went. "Damn it, Rei, stop!" Shinji shouts, "It's me! Shinji Ikari!"

"Shinji Ikari is dead." Rei announces, keeping her monotone voice ever since the fight began. "I have been ordered to eliminate all hostiles in the area. That is what I tend to do."

The hover AC switches to it's vertical missiles, firing a volley at _Berserker_. Shinji boosts to the side, avoiding all missiles except one, which hits his machine gun and destroys it. "Shit," he mutters, "I'm practically out of ammo now. All I've got is this laser blade, but she won't even let me get close!" Dropping his back weapons, he boosts behind the Crest base once more, leaving Rei directly on the other side for a moment. "Misato! That's Rei!" he shouts through the comm. channel.

"_I know, Shinji._" the female operator says, with no note of surprise in her voice. "Misato, what do we do?"

The response came almost immediately, nearly cutting Shinji off. "_You do what you were assigned to do! Your partner is down, so you're objective is to eliminate the enemy AC employed by Crest!_"

"But Misato--!"

"_Star Crossed, if you can't remember your mission, then why are you here anyway!?_"

The image of Shinji's father popped into his head. "I...I don't--shit!" Shinji over boosts to the left to avoid another vertical missile launch, but two missiles catch his right leg, causing _Berserker_ to stumble into a hill head first. The display on the monitors fuzz for a few seconds before coming back online. However, in that few seconds, Rei's AC was able to boost directly at Shinji, pinning him down into the hill _Berserker_ was slumped on.

00

_Target acquired. Commencing attack-._

A voice on Rei's console breaks off her concentration. "_Pilot Wonderer, we have retrieved the files from the base. You can come back."_

"...Roger."

00

_I don't get it, why isn't she shooting?_ Shinji ponders in what little time he has left to think. The blue-orange AC springs to life once more, lowering it's gun and boosting backward to give _Berserker a chance_ to stand up once more. "_You were lucky today, pilot Star Crossed._" Rei says over Shinji's channel, "_I have run out of ammo." _As she turns to leaves, she says one last thing to the spared AC pilot. _"Next time, I _will_ kill you._"

Rei boosts past _Flashback_, approaches the hill she jumped off of, and over boosts up and out of the area of operations. After the hover AC leaves, there is silence for another five seconds before the comm. channel comes to life again. "_The enemy is retreating, good work._" the male operator says, showing no sign of emotion in his voice.

As the helicopters move over the two ACs to pick up _Berserker_ and _Flashback_, Shinji adjusts the head of his AC to look at Bouquet's AC. The damage was noticeable, but not life threatening. The head was all but gone, leaving a small fraction of the skeletal part in place (based on the position, Shinji would have determined it to be the jawbone if it were human). The right arm was completely screwed up, so much that if it did have ammo, the arm would have backfired and blown itself up. Other than a small leg injury, no other major damage was done.

"Bouquet? Bouquet? Are you okay? Cassandra!" Shinji calls, panicking just a bit.

00

_"Bouquet! Please, come in!_"

Cassandra lifts her head up from her left shoulder, holding her head as she feels the AC moving upwards. Taking her hand away from her forehead, she can feel a red moist on her hand. Rubbing her fingers together, she can still hear Shinji's calls. "I'm fine, Star Crossed...just fine...I just need some sleep."

_I just need to sleep on the fact you killed my roommate._ That was the last thing that went through her mind before she slipped into another deep sleep, which lasted all the way back to Global Cortex.

000

"Well, this is quite a treat. We don't get many new Ravens like you these days. A nearly perfect record on your first sortie. Only a thousand credits in damage, and no wasted ammo! You sure you weren't a Raven before, Miss, uh..."

"Deus Metal." Asuka reminded her operator. Nearly in his sixties, the balding man referred to himself as Spark. "Right, right. So, Deus Metal, you've passed the test and are now officially a Raven."

Spark handed her something similar to what Asuka had during her days of piloting an EVA, only instead of the NERV logo imprinted on the card, it had the Global Cortex emblem, name, slogan and all. "Thanks, Sparky."

The man raised an eyebrow, not very pleased by the improvisation. "It's Spark. Only close friends can call me 'Sparky'. Now since you're going to be a bird, you'll need a nest. And what better place to stay than in the very place that got you the job!"

Asuka, deep down inside, really didn't want to stay with the scum at Global Cortex. She wanted to stay in a decent hotel, able to call in maid service when she wanted it, cable when she needed it, and possibly order some pizza when she didn't want to go out. Ah, to have the life of luxury! _A Raven shouldn't stay in a dirty nest, _she thinks, _anyway! A beautiful robin like me should nest in a cage, with food brought to...her..._

When she realizes the irony she just countered herself with, she agrees to have a room at Global Cortex.

"Okay, I've got a room set up for you here." Spark hands Asuka another card, with the Global Cortex logo and a room number. "Cell number D19. Unfortunately, we've run out of space in the other rooms, so you'll be sharing with two other Ravens. Is that okay?"

_Hell no! I'm not going to put up with even one shmuck! You can just go fuck yourself!_ "Sure, that's fine." Asuka says.

"Alright then," Spark approves, "I'll let them know to squeeze in room for one more."

000

The place is mildly noisy compared to the emergency room's at NERV, with screams from one pilot ranting on about a ghost AC, another sitting reclined in his bed playing a PSP. In between the two pilots is Cassandra, bandages on her forehead and upper right arm.

_Shit...shit...shit...shit...shit..._

Shinji is sitting on a wooden chair next to Cassandra, his palm on his forehead recounting the events that happened earlier that day. He looks at the clock on the bedside table. _Ten o'clock, huh? Guess I should get back and tend to repairs._

As the solemn pilot stands up to leave, he looks one last time at the wilted Bouquet. Sighing, Shinji opens the door.

"Wait."

He already had one foot out the door before he was asked to halt. He turns his head, then his torso, then the rest of his body to the girl that was lifting a hand up, as if she was reaching for something. "Cassandra?"

"Don't...go...after...it." the injured pilot moans, straining her voice as if she is gasping for air. Shinji dashes to her, grasping the raised hand with his. "I won't go after Rei. I won't!"

Cassandra is still looking at the doorway where Shinji was before. He looks closely in her eyes and can't see any life in them whatsoever. "Don't...go..." With that, her hand loses life, letting it sink from Shinji's stunned hands.

In the hallway, two nurses were talking about an eighteen year old boy's wild cut hair and dashing blue eyes when a thirty year old pilot steps out into the hallway and yells for a doctor immediately. The nurses dash in two different directions, leaving the pilot to worry about his comrade.

000

"D19...D19..."

Asuka has been walking through the hallways of the Global Cortex rooms, but after half an hour of searching, she is just about ready to call it quits. "Grrr...This SUCKS!" she yells, stomping her foot on the ground. "Where the hell is it!? I swear, if things could get any worse--!"

She stops herself as she feels something around her body. She looks down to see two hands grasping her precious commodities. Asuka turns around to see a smiling teenager with short, wild black hair and blue eyes. When he sees Asuka's expression, however, his face changes from amused to horror-stricken.

Eye-twitching, a devilish grin, and piercing eyes like those of a predator that just had it's lunch stolen greeted the young pervert. "You mind letting me go, pal?" Asuka growls.

Almost immediately did the boy jump back from the demon, putting his fiendish hands to his sides and looking up at the ceiling, as though to avoid eye contact with a drill sergeant. "S-Sorry! I didn't mean to...I mean you looked...um...hi!"

"_Hi._" Asuka says, the word piercing the boy's ears. "You mind telling me something?"

"Sure." he replies. The boy, looking about eighteen years old, makes eye contact with the nearly enraged red-head, and is glad that they are a lot calmer than before. "What is it?"

"I'm trying to get to my new cell, but I'm not sure where it is. Could you just point me in the right direction?"

"Alright. What's your room number?" the boy asks. Asuka looks at the paper Spark handed to her that has her room number, garage number, anything with a number that was a necessity. "Says here it's...D19. You know where that is? Hey, what's wrong?"

The boy's pupils went small, and asked for the paper Asuka was holding. She gave them the boy and let him look at it. "D19. Well, that's the number alright. Yup, that's definitely a nineteen...with a D on it...D19--."

"Just tell me where to go!!" Asuka snaps.

"Okay! Well, I'm walking down there anyway, so you might as well come along." the boy says. Asuka nods in agreement and begins to walk before stopping. "What?" the boy asks.

"You. In front. Now."

"Oh. Right...because I know where the room is, right?"

Asuka growls, "That's part of it."

The boy walks in a hurried pace, trying to move faster than the red head's piercing gaze would go.

000

Sitting in the hallway, Shinji can't stop thinking if Cassandra is okay or not. _It's my fault_, he thinks constantly, _I made her this way. I killed her! How can I live with that? I killed my own partner in a combat situation! She needed help and I couldn't do anything!_

Berating himself further, Shinji does not notice a doctor come from Cassandra's room and approach him. "Star Crossed?"

The pilot snaps out of his subconscious and greets the doctor with a handshake. "How is she?" are the first words that come out of Shinji's mouth since he called for a doctor earlier.

"She's fine." the doctor assures, "She just fell asleep, judging from all we could gather. Bouquet will be out of the infirmary in about twenty-four hours." As the doctor says this, he makes a note of a few things on his med-pad.

"Okay. Thank you, that's good to know."

Shinji nods toward the doctor and turns to leave. "Wait a moment." the doctor commands, with a bit of kindness in his voice. The pilot turns back to the doctor, his eyebrows raised. "Yes?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Bouquet for a moment." the doctor says, "You see, I've been her doctor ever since she was inducted to Global Cortex, and I've noticed a few things. Given that you are her roommate, I wanted to ask you if you encountered any strange behavior while you were with her."

Shinji's thoughts went back to Cassandra, sitting up on the bed with her arm extended out towards the door. _"Don't go after it."_

"No, not really." Shinji lies, "Why? Is something wrong with her?" He needs to know why she did that, and if it meant lying to this doctor, then so be it.

The doctor rubs his hand through his silver, crew cut hair before continuing. "Bouquet has some sort of ability within her. We have not been able to quite pinpoint what it is though, but we can tell it's a gift. Or a curse, depending on how she views it."

Shinji recalls the conversation with Cassandra before their mission. "Is this about her amnesia?" Shinji guesses.

"Partly," the doctor continues, rubbing one eye with his index finger. "This kind of amnesia she has is disrupting some of her thought processes. Apparently she was hit more than once in the head in the past. She can do most daily things with ease, but when she's piloting an AC, she's been known to take a pause or two during battle."

"A pause? You mean she just stops in place and lets herself get shot?"

"Only for a few seconds, but it does leave her vulnerable. When she gets back from her missions, she doesn't tell me directly, but lets me know that she saw something during her outing."

Shinji couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. "Saw something?"

"Well, when her last roommate died," the doctor continued, not noticing Shinji cringe, "Bouquet told the nurses that it was bound to happen. That she knew Fixer was going to die on that mission. She didn't know we were keeping him on a life support system at the time, but the day after, Fixer did die. Slow, but peaceful."

Rubbing his eyes, the pilot decided to take another guess. "So, she can see into the future?"

"In a way, yes." the doctor affirms, "But she sees things that make us pity her a bit. She can see who is going to die."

"What?" Shinji pipes, a bit surprised at this new information. It nearly took all of his willpower to keep his legs from falling under him.

"I know it may seem like nonsense," the doctor says, again not noticing Shinji's reaction, "But so far, her past few accusations have been correct. She doesn't know _when_ they'll die, only that they will die. And that can't be a good ability in a place like this. I'm surprised her mental capacity has lasted this long!"

"No kidding!" Shinji agrees, "But what can we do to help her?"

The doctor turns to leave, clicking his pen and putting it in his front pocket. "The only thing we can do for her is to try to stay alive."

000

"D19...D19...Ah, here we go!"

The teenager, accompanied by Asuka, has finally reached her room after ten minutes of walking. "Thanks, although I could've sworn you were lost at some point." Asuka says, crossing her arms.

"Oh, I see." the boy sneers, "After I lead a woman to her new room, I'm not thanked yet ridiculed. I see how it is now."

Asuka just raises an eyebrow at him. "Oh, please, you were just as lost as I was. That's why it took you so long to find it in the first place!"

"Okay, Miss Snappy. How long were you roaming the halls before I came and--"

"BEFORE YOU CAME ALONG AND GROPED ME!?"

Taken aback, the boy tires to defend his case until the door to D19 opens. "Is everything alright, Jolt?"

Asuka looks at the young woman through the crack of the door. Like the teenager next to Asuka, the woman had blue eyes and black hair (except it was longer, and the eyes seemed to attract attention like bees to a succulent flower). Asuka takes another glance at the nervous girl in the door, then looks back at the boy Jolt. "So, you're name's Jolt, huh?" she muses, finally getting an identity.

"Shut up." Jolt commands, now directing his attention to the girl still hiding behind the door. "Everything's fine, Steg. Just talking to our new roommate."

"New roommate?" Steg says, with a bit of a nervous tone in her voice, "Are you sure?"

Sighing, Jolt rubs the back of his head. "Yeah, I read her papers. She's a new Raven with quite a mouth on her. Worse than Mother's!"

Through this conversation, Asuka just stood there, looking at the two of them with a bit of shock and anger on her face. "Wait a sec. Steg lives here...with YOU!?"

Surprised, Jolt takes notice of the red-head glaring at him once again. "Yeah, we're the owners of the cell. You got a problem...with...that?" Jolt began to slow down his speech, and slowly edge toward the door, fearing that this new roommate was about to self-destruct and take down the entire D-Hall of Global Cortex with her.

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Author's Notes:

Well well well, looks like another twist. I don't think this is the best chapter, though. Also, I know there's not alot of action, but let's just say I'm trying to stay true to the Evangelion formula...which is a pathetic excuse...Oh well.

This chapter introduces two new characters, which have yet to be developed. These characters were OCs from SSJ-Jolt. Hope I get this right...crosses fingahs


	5. Chapter 5: Question to an Answer

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Chapter 5: Question to an Answer/Shadow of Obsession

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An elderly man stood in the distance next to a swing, with a smile that would warm the heart of any tortured soul. A little girl, wearing a yellow dress smiled back at him. However, her happiness turned into fear when the entire park disappeared, the two now standing in darkness. "_I must go now. Take care of your mother for me, will you?_"

The girl ran to her father, tears streaming down her face. "_No! Don't go, Daddy! Something bad will happen!_" She yelled, noticing that the darkness was enveloping the still smiling father. "_I have to. I've been called onto the field._" he said, with a bit of sadness in his voice. "_I'll be fine. I love you, Cassandra._"

"_No! Daddy!!_" was the last thing the girl shouted before he was completely enveloped in the darkness, "_Don't go near it!_"

"_Don't go near it!_"

"_I love you, Cassandra._"

"_Daddy! DADDY!!_"

"_Cassandra!_" Another voice popped up, sounding nothing like her father. "_Cassandra! Wake up!_"

Her eyes shot open, sweat dripping down the side of her face. She looks around at her surroundings, recognizing the white bed, hospital gown, and curtains blocking her view from the other patients. _That same dream,_ she thinks to herself. She sits up from the bed and stretches. As she reaches over to her left for her clothes that were sitting on her bedside table, she is surprised to see Shinji sleeping in a chair next to the table.

The worried pilot is hunched over; his head hardly moving save for the breaths he took in as he slept. He was in his everyday clothes, a white sleeveless t-shirt with brown shorts and gray/blue tennis shoes. The only thing keeping him comfortable is a single blue jean-jacket, which looks like it belongs to Cassandra. "Shinji?" she whispers, mainly to herself.

Catching himself before he falls on the ground, Shinji wakes up, blinking and rubbing his eyes. Only when he notices the hospitalized pilot is he fully awake, asking if she was okay. "I'm fine. What are you doing here?" Cassandra asks.

"Well, the doctor said that it would take about a day for you to recover, but I just wanted to make sure." he replies. He notices the coat hanging around his shoulders. "Oh! Right, sorry. This is yours." he apologizes, folding the coat and putting it up on the bedside table with the rest of Cassandra's apparel.

"So, how long was I out?" she asks. "Well," Shinji informs, "looks like you're eight hours ahead of schedule. It's ten o' clock in the morning right now."

"Really?" Cassandra asks, a bit surprised that she wasn't out as long as before. "That's good. That means I still have time to catch breakfast!"

Shinji smiles at the optimism, but fades just as quickly. "What's wrong?" Cassandra asks.

"Well, it's just that...I thought you would be little bit more angry at me. You know, since you figured out my call sign..."

Her thoughts flash back to the battle. _"Wait, Star Cro--_" was all she could get out before she was knocked back. Reverting back to the present, Cassandra smiles and just shakes her head. "Nah, Shinji. It's fine!"

But the pilot wouldn't let it go. "But I'm the one that killed your roommate--!"

Cassandra puts two fingers on his lips, wishing he hadn't said that. "Shinji, its okay, really." she admits, withholding any negative emotions. "In this profession, people die here. Every day, Ravens are taking bets, wondering who's going to go out in sparks. We do what we can to survive. And if our best isn't good enough, then our due date has passed its expiration date."

She puts her feet on the floor and stretches once more. "Now, how about we go get a croissant before lunch, eh?"

"Sure," Shinji agrees, "but you might want to put on your clothes first. I don't think that gown suits you."

Cassandra looks down at the green hospital gown, then looks behind her back, just barely seeing her own rump. "I guess my old clothes wouldn't hurt." she says, laughing at the observation. _As long as I can be happy, Shinji doesn't need to know how I really feel_.

000

"Grr...what time is it?"

The groggy red-head looks up from her pillow, glancing to her right at the bedside clock. "Ten o' five? Nngh," she moans, "I'm turning out like Misato."

The thirty year old new Raven pilot pushes herself from the bed, feeling as though she was pushing the entire world off of her. She gives up on the attempt and lands on her back. "I thought there was an alarm in this damn place."

"It _did_ go off." a male voice says. "Your beauty just needed to recover from yesterday."

Jolt walks in, carrying a tray of waffles with a glass of milk and a piece of toast. Awake and fully dressed in white t-shirt, green pants, black boots and fingerless gloves with a red padded  
vest unzipped, he approaches the edge of the bed. "You feeling better today? 'Cause if you're not, I'll put your tray over here so as to avoid getting my head bitten off."

"Yeah, I'm okay." Asuka sighs, rubbing her forehead with her arm. "Was the couch comfy?"

"If by 'couch' you mean 'floor with a bed mat to keep me mildly comfy', then no. No it wasn't." Jolt complains. "Did you enjoy sleeping in my bed?"

Asuka sits up in the bed finally, looking at the breakfast before her. "If by 'bed' you mean 'stinky kid's haystack', then I guess it was okay." she mocks. Asuka grabs the fork next to her place and begins to chow down, forgetting that she was a girl for a moment.

Jolt, looking at the horrid site before him, musters a few words. "You know, for a thirty year old, you sure don't act your age."

The next fork full of waffle stops before reaching the last inch towards her mouth. She looks down at her matured body with a sense of unfamiliarity, as though she was in someone else's body. "I don't feel my age." she thinks aloud, before continuing her meal in a much slower pace.

The door behind Jolt creaks open, with Steg slipping into the room. "Brother does this mean I have to sleep on the floor next time?" she quietly says. The older pilot of the duo turns around and shakes his head. "No, it's okay." he assures, "I'm going to go shopping again today, and I'll see if there's a decent sized bed I can get for our new roommate with the name...uh, what's your name again? Don't think I caught it last night when you stole my bed."

The now rejuvenated red-head looks up at the two pilots, finishing the last of the orange juice. "Asuka Langely Soryu, call sign Deus Metal."

"Well, that's a better way to introduce yourself!" Jolt approves. "Same to you." Asuka bitterly says, remembering how he jumped her in his way of saying 'wanna hit the sack?'

Knowing what she's talking about, Jolt fakes a cough. "Well, I'm Jolt, as you know. Jolt Testament, call sign White Comet. This is..."

Jolt motions his hands in a way you would see the lady on "Wheel of Fortune" present a brand new car, directing it towards his sister. "S-Steg Testament." she stammers, "Call sign White Comet."

As expected, Asuka is left with a confused expression. "Wait, why do you both have the call sign 'White Comet'? You wanted to follow in our brother's footsteps or somethin'?"

Before Jolt can answer, Steg cuts him off. "We're actually testing a prototype AC for one of the companies, ma'am!" the sixteen year old girl hurriedly says. "You see, my brother and I pilot the same AC. He controls the main attack functions and communications, while I control the defensive controls and strategize for my brother."

"Basically," Jolt summarizes, "we're two parts of one whole."

"Mhm." Asuka nods, "Well then, I guess that makes a bit of sense." She gets up from the bed, stretching her back out. When she looks down, she realizes she's still in her daytime clothes. "Aw, shit. Listen, I'm going to get washed up and go down to the cafeteria for lunch. You can do what you want so long as it doesn't concern me." She walks past Jolt and Steg and heads through the door.

Jolt turns to Steg, who was still looking down at the floor after she said her peace. "So, sis, you think we'll be able to get along with her?" he asks. The girl's response was a simple shake of the head. "Didn't think so." he says, smiling.

However, the tranquil of the silence was cutoff by a harsh voice from the other side of the door that Asuka just went through. "_What the hell! Who puts a bathroom in between two rooms!?_"

000

Opening the door with one hand and carrying a bag of store food in the other, Shinji steps into his cell. He drops his card key to the room on the bed carelessly and walks towards the bathroom. As he walks through towards Cassandra's room, he looks at the mirror and notices that his stubbly beard is growing into a five o' clock shadow. "Ugh. I haven't shaven in days after that mission." he says to himself, opening the second door.

Cassandra is sitting at her computer, clicking away at some pop-ups on her screen. Not noticing him, Shinji takes the advantage of putting the food on the table, arranging it to look mildly presentable. _Ramen cups with diet soda and shrimp. Lovely_.

He turns to the pilot engrossed in her work, still not taking note of Shinji's presence. He goes to the door he just went through and knocks on it twice. "I'm home!" he announces.

"I know. I heard you talking about your beard troubles." Cassandra says.

"Oh...I was that loud?"

Closing out a window on Google., Cassandra spins the chair, facing her roommate. "Nah, they're just thin walls. Come here, I want to show you what I've found so far." She spins back around toward the computer, opening the window she had before.

"What have you found? Better yet, what are you looking for?" Shinji asks, not quite sure if this had to do with his personal record or someone else's. "I've been looking for information on that AC pilot we encountered the other day. When I first started, all it gave me was a call sign, age, and join date. Then I dug deeper..."

Shinji stops her before she can continue. "Let's start with the basics, please?"

Cassandra nods. "Yeah, I gotcha. Get your feet wet first before you take the full dive. Well, the pilot's call sign is Wonderer, AC name Zero Shift. She works well in high speed, open environment combat, as we could tell. Age is about eighteen, joined when she was fifteen--"

"Wait a second!" Shinji interrupts, "When I knew her, she was about fourteen! How could she have applied to Global Cortex in 2015!?"

Cassandra turned to the erratic pilot, with a confused look on her face. "What are you talking about? You know her?"

Before he could answer, his mind went to the Rei tank that Ritsuko showed them during his days as a NERV pilot. The orange-yellow LCL fluid surrounded the entire room, with Rei clones filling the void. Their innocent smiles had scarred Shinji that day, but what made it worse was when they began to fall apart, their bodies sinking to the bottom.

_How could she have applied...when her copies were destroyed?_ Shinji begins to wonder. _Maybe there was a spare room? No, not really. Even if there was, NERV disbanded in 2016 after the last angel attack. So where..._

"Hello? Shinji? You there?" a concerned, yet mocking voice calls out. He was zoned out, but is soon brought back by Cassandra's teasing. "Oh, sorry. I was thinking really hard." Shinji apologizes.

The confused girl gives him another concerned glance before turning back to the screen. "Anyway, I was explaining how Wonderer isn't registered with Global Cortex. It looks as though she's signed on with a single company, although it doesn't say which on here. However, I did find out where her garage is."

"Is it somewhere around here?" Shinji wonders. "If so, we can go meet her."

"No, doesn't look like it." Cassandra says. "Even so, why would we visit her in the first place? Have a nice chat, say hello, ask her if she could stop killing us? I imagine _that_ conversation will go well." Her tone isn't harsh as much as displeased with Shinji.

Sighing, he shakes off his idea of meeting with Rei once again. "So, where is the garage?"

On the computer screen, the screen changes from the google. homepage and goes to a worldwide map. Cassandra touches the country Japan, and the screen zooms in on the land. She touches the screen again, magnifying the zoom on an area Shinji was too familiar with. The screen is touched once again, showing a clear picture of the ruins of Tokyo-2.

"Apparently, it's somewhere in this region." Cassandra informs. "Reports show this is where the AC was last sighted before disappearing behind a structure. But, some civilians have heard shakes and quakes from here." She pushes the top of the screen, moving the map downward and revealing the battle-ruined city of Tokyo-3.

The bed is not expecting to be sat on by a shocked former Evangelion pilot. A minor sweat drop falls from Shinji's brow, going into freefall and falling on his knee. "Tokyo-3..." he thinks aloud.

Cassandra, not taking notice of Shinji's pandemonium, leans back in the chair, staring at the hibernation spot of Zero Shift. "What I don't get though is how she is able to get from that side of the world all the way to the United States. Call me paranoid, but this girl could be pulling a Houdini. What do you think, Shinji?"

She looks at her roommate, surprised to find his hands covering his face. He isn't crying, however he didn't want to talk about this further. "Shinji?" Cassandra says, concerned.

He stands up before Cassandra can ask what is wrong. "I'm going to go shave." he says flatly. The man turns directly to his left and walks to the bathroom.

Shutting the door behind him, Shinji grabs his shaving cream and squirts an average amount of the white, fluffy substance onto the palm of his hand, enjoying the cool feeling it presented him. He is about to slap it onto his face until he looks in the mirror once more, looking at the man he now was. The face of his father vaguely replaces Shinji's own image in the mirror. _Why are you here?_ The mirage asked him.

Shinji just stared back at the image, his eyes like those of a scarred soul, similar to when he was a child. He gave his reply to the hallucination, which he regretted saying even now, at his age.

"I don't know."

000

"Mellow?" a muffled voice yells, opening the door to her cell. "I'fe got food!"

Asuka is only greeted with silence as she locks the door behind her. Ripping through the cheeseburger in her mouth, she swallows the bite she has in her mouth. "It figures. I guess they went out shopping or something. Oh well, guess that means I get to try out this new stuff I got."

The redhead reaches into the bag hooked around her left arm, pulling out a box with a woman on the front with long, brunette hair with yellow streaks tracing from the front of her skull to the edges of her hair. Grinning, Asuka walks to the bathroom and puts the box near the sink. "If you want to kick some ass, you've gotta do it in style!" She brags triumphantly. Walking back into her room, she sets the bag down and pulls out a box of fries. "I hope they're not the rubber kind." She jests to herself.

She turns around to head back to the bathroom to see Steg standing in the doorway.

Surprised, Asuka nearly drops her fries onto the floor. "Jeez! Don't scare me like that! Knock will you?"

"Oh. Sorry..." Steg apologizes, trailing off the rest of her words. Sighing, Asuka turns back around and sits at the edge of her bed, descending the top half of the body towards the rest of the bed. "You know, sometimes I think you're worse than Shinji." _If I can remember what he looks like,_ she adds to herself. She turns to the fries and grabs another one. She rolls back over on her back and is about to put it in her mouth, however a goggle-eyed face was staring back at her.

"ACK! What the--?"

Before Asuka has a chance to yell at the girl, Steg is already sitting next to the startled pilot. "You know about Shinji!?" Steg asks, forfeiting her quiet personality for an opposite, upbeat one. "You know about Star Crossed!?"

"Star Crossed? Shinji?" Asuka asks, confused by the alias. "Well, I did know Shinji, but that was a long time ago--!"

Steg is now leaning closer into Asuka, still keeping her wide-eyed expression. "What's he like? Is he nice? Does he play World of Lawcraft? Is he a good kisser? What's his favorite kind of movie? What..."

Asuka tries to block out the rest of the questions by humming a song in her head, but Steg's constant interrogation was about to make her head pop.

Just when Asuka thought she was about to strangle the obsessive child, Jolt comes in through the bathroom door. "Hey, I heard some racket going on--STEG! GET OFF OF HER!"

The responsible brother pulls Steg off of Asuka, unable to keep her quiet nor still. "Sorry, we'll talk about this later!" Jolt yells over Steg's rant about how she wants Shinji all to herself. With a slam, the event was over, leaving Asuka practically speechless about what just transpired.

"Shinji...has a fan?" she asks herself before eating the squashed fry in her hand.

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Author's Note:

Phew! This chapter threw quite an emotional spree onto me. At least this chapter's done...

I know, some parts of this story don't make much sense. Well, they don't make much sense to me either. I'm hoping to just take the ball and run with it. I'll try to fit in some action in chapter six, so be on the look out for it!


	6. Chapter 6: Empty Belief

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Chapter 6: Empty Belief/Phoenix

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She wakes up from nothing. No dream, nor nightmare to stir her from her slumber. She just wakes up with a thought in her head. A thought that appears like the first snowflake in the peak of winter.

The girl sits up from her bed, still in darkness. Closing her eyes, she claps her hands twice, and the 20x30 foot room is illuminated. When she opens her eyes once more, they adjust to the light. However, she does not squint. The girl throws the thermal blanket off of her and swings her legs around to the floor, which could only be reached by jumping off the queen-sized bed.

Naked due to lack of pajamas, the girl rubs her shoulders from the breeze, but nothing more. She walks to the door to the bathroom and opens it. The contents of the bathroom would make a wealthy man envious, with a separate bathtub, shower, and two sinks. There seems to be mirrors on all four walls, even the door the girl closes behind her as she steps in.

She walks to one of the two sinks and turns on the cold water. The girl cups her hands, letting the clear substance fill up in her cupped hands. She is about to splash it on her face, however stops to look at her face.

Rei Ayanami, an eighteen year old girl and an AC pilot for Crest, stares at the water she has captured and looks into her own eyes, even though there are mirrors all around her she could gaze at. Her blood red eyes seem to contradict the sky-blue hair that hung blown to her shoulders. Usually, she ties her hair into a ponytail, but right now it is hanging loose like a willow. Besides that, the rest of her face (and body) was not scarred by the flow of time.

When she joined Crest, she did not know who to follow at the time. Besides walking and breathing, she did not do what she wanted. Ever since she was brought into existence, she was taught to obey._ Brainwashed_ to obey. When she heard about Global Cortex, she could not join because she would not know what to do with herself. To guide her own destiny would seems out of reach for Rei.

She thinks back to the days when she took orders from NERV. From the Commander. How he would always talk to her after a synchronization test, or during repairs on Eva Unit 00. When she remembered the Commander's smile, she thinks about the Commander's son's smile when he came after her when the Angel was destroyed. She thinks about the time when she...

"Pilot Ikari is dead." Rei recites to herself, as a reminder of what her purpose here is. "When my contract ends, I will find Commander Ikari."

She drops the water back into the sink and claps her hands twice. She is enveloped by darkness once again.

000

"Mr. President, there have been recent attacks on Warehouse 72 stationed in the desert." a man says, dressed in security attire. "Should we send out a notice for Global Cortex?"

President Keel is leaning back in his chair, looking out the window that faced the city that he controlled. He turns around toward the man that interrupted his tranquility and stares at him through his pitch-black aviator glasses. "No." he responds. "We'll send out our pilot in reserves."

The man nods and turns to the door to leave. Keel turns to the window to gaze upon the city below. His concentration is broken once again, however, by the same man. "Sir, the company responsible is--"

"I know, Charles, I know." Keel says, a bit agitated. As he resumes his gazing, Keel can hear the man close the door behind him. _So, Ikari, you've finally taken the offensive._ The president thinks, watching an explosion form in the distance due to another MT malfunction.

000

"Get up! Getupgetupgetupgetupgetupgetupgetup..."

Steg is bouncing on Asuka's new double bed received from Jolt. But not even the most comfortable bed could not handle the barrage of jumps from the persistent sixteen year old desperate to have Shinji to herself.

Asuka, however, is not amused by these attempts to get more information out of herself. "For. The. Last. Time." Asuka grunts, not able to complete a full sentence because of the bouncing, "I. Am. Not. Telling. You. Any. Thing. Else. About. Shinji."

"Oh, come ON!" Steg shouts, "You MUST know something about his job, life, eating habits, style, sexiness..."

"Oh. Just. Shut. Up." Asuka growls. At this time, Jolt walks into the room with a stack of pancakes, a croissant, and a glass of milk. "Okay, Steg, get off of her. It's time for breakfast." he says, laughing a bit at the scene before him.

The persistent girl finally jumps off, pouting at her older brother. "Oh, come on, brother!" he says, "It's only six o' clock!"

"Yeah, in the morning." Asuka says, finally uncovering the pillow she wrapped around her head. "By the way, I didn't smell anything in the kitchen to assume something was cooking."

"That's because I'm lazy and went to get breakfast at the shop." Jolt responds, "Come on, dig in. We've got a mission assignment this morning."

The girl sits up in her bed. "WHAT!?"

"I said...whoa." Jolt stops. Asuka's hair had now completely changed in size and color. She appeared to have hacked it off at the shoulders and is now just hanging around her neck. The redhead had completely bleached her hair brown, and re-bleached blonde stripes from her widow's peak down to the tips of her hair. "Um, Asuka? What did you...?"

She notices Jolt looking at her hair. "Oh, this?" Asuka points out, "I did it a week ago. Sorry you weren't here to see me work on it!"

_She kept saying she was going to do it, but...damn!_ Jolt thinks to himself. He looks at his sister to find she has the same reaction. Because they both pilot the same AC, Steg equally shared the surprise.

Grabbing the breakfast tray presented to her, Asuka begins to dig in. "Pho," Asuka asks with a mouth full of pancakes in her mouth, "When d'you get back? And whaf's fis miffion we got?"

"Just last night, about ten o' clock, I believe." Jolt says, walking over to the computer. "However, the mission's not done yet. Mirage wants me--"

"And me!" Steg reminds her brother. "Right," he continues, "Steg and I are to travel to the desert in 1300 hours. They want us to bring another AC along for the ride. So we picked you."

Asuka finishes the croissant on her plate before speaking. "Well, I don't know if you picked the right person. I've only been in this business for a month now, and I haven't made many modifications to _Red Hot_." She picks up the glass of milk and drains it. "You trying to get me killed after only a month?" the woman says, raising an eyebrow toward the pilot.

"Not at all." Jolt says calmly. "In fact, I'll help pay for some new parts. You need to get rid of that starter head. It's just weighing you down along with that radar."

The former red-head lays back down on the bed, sighing. "I guess so." she agrees. Looking up at the ceiling, Asuka thinks through the opportunity, scanning through the advantages and disadvantages for going. _I could finally get that flamethrower,_ she ponders, _but is it really worth it?_

"If you're thinking about the point of risking your life," Steg says, "then you're in the wrong place. Ravens risk their lives everyday just for the paycheck."

Asuka sits back up on the bed, staring at the now active girl standing before her. Steg's eyes aren't harsh, yet they signal the message across to Asuka. Her stance was prominent, yet relaxed at the same time.

Grunting, she stands up from the bed. "Alright, I'll go. And I DON'T want to hear about Shinji the entire way there, alright?" Asuka asks, noticing Steg transition from serious to overjoyed.

"Yes ma'am!" the girl salutes.

"Okay, on with the briefing." Jolt says, "On our last mission, we were asked to drive back a group of MT forces invading a Kisaragi base in Sector 274. Thanks to turret support from the base, they were driven back with ease. We were just about to head out when we got a call from Kisaragi saying that they liked our skills and wanted us for a special assignment being held somewhere in the desert.

"Our second part of this mission," he continues, gathering the rest of the intelligence from the computer. "is to remove all hostiles from the area of operations and destroy the goods inside the warehouse stationed there. Kisaragi also recommended that we bring along another AC. You'll be paid the same wages as Steg and I are."

The woman nods. "So, take out everything in the sandy dunes." Asuka sums up, "Well, that sounds pretty easy. What are you guys getting paid again?"

Jolt looks through the computer and finds the payout. "Well, with Steg's pay at 45,000 credits and mine at 48,000 credits, I suppose yours comes around to...93,000 credits."

Asuka makes a low whistle and walks over to the dresser. "Can't complain to that. What time is it now?"

"Six o' seven." Jolt confirms. "We've got time."

"Alright, I'm going shopping." Asuka announces, putting on a black t-shirt over her white tank top. "Call me when we're ready to go."

Before Asuka opens the door, Jolt calls out to her. "What exactly are you going to be shopping for, Miss Soryu?"

_Miss Soryu...I kinda like that!_ Asuka thinks to herself before turning to the two AC pilots. "What do you think? For some new parts!"

"But..." Jolt says, unsure of what to say. Before she closes the door, Asuka yells out to them, "If you're going to kick ass, you've gotta do it in style!"

000

The place is crowded with people. With Ravens just getting through daily life. Among these pilots of giant robots is Shinji Ikari, call sign Star Crossed, who is thinking about the most important decision he faces now...

"Chicken or shrimp broth?" Shinji mutters to himself.

It's just another day at Global Cortex. There are no missions for Shinji to take on at the moment, so he decided to gather rations for the rest of the week. Cassandra gave him a list before he left, however half of the stuff on there is not sold at the market in the nest for Ravens. Trying to improvise, Shinji is looking for ingredients for Cassandra's "favorite recipe of ramen". So far, however, he isn't having much luck.

"Well, wait a second." Shinji argues with himself, "If I used chicken broth, then that would ruin the 'Shrimp Salad', but the ingredients call for a broth not related to fish...what is that girl thinking?"

Giving up, he takes all the ingredients for ramen, needed or not, and checks out. The lady at the counter rings him up for 840 credits. "Well, it's alot cheaper than repairs these days." Shinji murmurs to himself, paying the woman.

As he walks out of the convenience market, he looks around at the large cafeteria before him. The place looks like a high school cafeteria, but triple the size to accommodate the other stores to the side that offer clothing, banking, fast food, and AC parts (which happens to be the biggest one there!). Above the entire cafe is a giant display you see at basketball games, with a display viewed across all four sides of the cube. It's main broadcast is usually arena battles between high ranking Ravens, but right now it's showing an advertisement for a Kisaragi brand flamethrower.

"I feel like I'm in a mall or something..." Shinji mutters aloud. He walks over to one of the fast food restaurants, titled Burger Queen, and decides to order two burgers for he and his roommate, Cassandra. The lady across from Shinji hands him his receipt after he made his payment, and goes to sit down to wait for his food. He looks at his order number. "Sixty two." he recites. He looks up at the "Now Serving" sign above the restaurant, which reads "41".

"Aw hell."

Regretting his decision, Shinji leans back in his chair and makes himself comfortable. As he is about to doze off, he looks at the jumbo-tron hanging above the cafeteria, which suddenly changes from a commercial on Mirage's new high-performance head part to a title screen which reads "Raven Arena".

Shinji watches the screen from the corner of his eye, glancing every now at then at the "Now Serving" counter.

**Raven Arena**

**Match 18:**

**Valkyrie vs. Barchetta**

The screen fades from the title screen to an octagonal room, with two ACs on either side of it. To the left is a white, lightweight AC, carrying a sniper rifle and only two single-missile launchers. The blade it carries was the brand that could travel quite a distance to it's target. _Long range combatant and lightweight; I'm going to say that that's Valkyrie._ Shinji thinks to himself.

He looks at the other contender, which seemed to be completely opposite of it's opponent, with grenade launchers on both sides of it's back and arms using the same ammo, it's no wonder it needs heavy tread legs. _And _that's_ Barchetta_. Shinji confirms.

"Ravens and robins, may I have your attention please!" a voice booms, echoing across the entire place. "Today's battle is between AC pilot Valkyrie, and AC pilot Barchetta! They will be fighting for a spot in the B-ranking ladder to secure a fight with A-ranker Royal Mist! Remember, all bets are final. Now, let the match...begin!"

Without a moment's pause, the two ACs spring to life. Barchetta fires a round of grenades from it's dual cannon arms, heading straight for Valkyrie. However, the pilot jumps up into the air to avoid the blasts. The white AC keeps ascending, ascending, and continues to go upwards until it's practically touching the ceiling. _She'll run out of energy before too long,_ Shinji thinks to himself.

However, Valkyrie begins the assault, raining sniper fire from high up, like a bird spotting a clean car. Meanwhile, Barchetta is struggling to keep up with the white AC, the tank turning to catch up to the Raven flying circles around him.

Before he has a chance to see if Barchetta makes a comeback, Shinji hears a voice coming from behind him. "Sir, are you number sixty two?"

He turns around to the lady speaking to him. She apparently already bagged his order and neglected to watch the counter like he told himself he would. Sighing, he gives the lady his number, in which he gets his order in return. "Thank you." he says, before turning back to the jumbo screen to watch the fight.

However, it is already over. Barchetta lays in ruins, having dropped both of it's back weapons probably trying to catch up to Valkyrie. The head was almost gone, and it's legs shot down. However, the white AC lands right behind the red-orange AC, practically unscathed in the conflict. The announcer comes to life once more, "Ravens and robins, we have a winner! In an amazing display of grace and accuracy, AC pilot Valkyrie has pulled off another victory, leaving Barchetta in the dust! She will advance in the B-ranking and will soon face Royal Mist in the arena next week. Coming up next in thirty minutes is Scatter versus..."

Shinji had already left the cafe and was now heading towards the apartments, pushing up on the elevator switch. _Well, that's one person I don't want to piss off,_ Shinji muses to himself, _kind of like a certain German girl I used to know._

The elevator beeps, and the door opens. Before Shinji has a chance to step in, a woman with brown hair and blonde stripes pushes past him. "Sorry!" he calls out to the woman.

"You better be!" she calls back, continuing to walk. Shaking his head, Shinji steps into the elevator and presses "C" to go to his hallway. "Some people," he says to himself as the door closes.

00000

Well, I would like to call this a filler, but it has some important info and details that I might've left off in the previous chapters. Anyway, Hope y'all liked it! Many thanks to the people who have reviewed me so far, you've kept me going through with a fanfic I thought I was going to give up on by the end of chapter 3!


	7. Chapter 7: Desert Skirmish

Terribly sorry for the delay. This was actually written up a long time ago, however I'm just having a few problems getting the stories online. I'll explain later if you're interested. Anyway, enjoy!

00000

Chapter 7 Desert Skirmish/High-Risk Reunion

00000

"Alright, bring them down! I want these parts fixed in before noon, got it?" Asuka shouts at the mechanics, who respond with a "yes ma'am".

It is ten thirty in the morning, two and a half hours until Asuka, Jolt, and Steg depart for the desert. Earlier that morning, Asuka was shopping for new parts to fix on her AC _Red Hot_. Fortunately, she found the exact rifle she was looking for since she heard about it, along with reverse-joint legs to handle the new weight.

Her AC is a mid-heavy design, weighed down now with the new energy rifle she bought that morning. Her back weapons consist of an energy slug gun and a missile launcher that can fire a total of six missiles at once. Her left arm part is a simple rifle, which proved useful during missions when she did run out of ammunition. The color scheme was simple, with red-black arms and the rest of the AC a white-tan color. The head merely looked like a can with four eyes, which seemed to fit the EO core she had equipped.

As the mechanics equip the new energy rifle and reverse-joint legs, she looks upon her creation with a sense of triumph. However, her satisfactory feeling was cut off by a feeling of violation and rage, as a pair of familiar hands groped her breasts once more. "Just because I changed my hair, doesn't mean I'm different from before, _Jolt_." she fumes, adding deadly emphasis on the wild black-haired Raven.

"I'm hurt, Asuka. After all we've been through--!"

The teenager is cut off by an elbow to the gut, followed by the sudden forward momentum that sends him crashing to the ground. As Asuka lets go of his arm, she looks down at the now mildly petrified boy staring back into her fiery blue eyes. "Three-second rule." She says, grinning like a mad man who just got his first fix.

Steg comes running up behind Asuka, picking up her brother and putting his arm around her shoulders. "You know I need him to operate _Tempest_, Asuka!" Steg reminds her, stepping through the door to the garage hallway.

_If he can keep his thoughts on the battle ahead, then he won't end up like that,_ Asuka thinks to herself before observing the work once more.

000

Shinji lay on his bed, staring up into the ceiling and thinking about all that has happened so far. He moved in with Cassandra, met up with Rei in a manner he would rather not encounter again, and now he's about to go on another assignment. Alone.

"So I'm getting no help whatsoever on this mission...great." Shinji thinks aloud. "Usually there's turret support for me. But I guess that's only on protection missions."

Getting up from the bed, Shinji walks over to the computer and opens the mission briefing one more time:

**Secure Control of Sector 157**

**Sender: Mirage**

**Advance Reward: 0C**

**Reward: 12,000C**

**Good day, Raven. Because of your recent encounter with Wonderer, we would like to ask for your assistance in a matter. You see, we have reason to believe that someone has activated the security defense system in Sector 157 and gained control of that area. Civilians have been evacuated from the area, so casualties are not a concern. Your top priority is to either reroute control to the security defense system to us, or destroy all hostiles in the area of operations.**

**We would have done this ourselves, however a blue-orange AC piloted by Wonderer has impeded our efforts. This confirms our thoughts that Crest is involved in this sabotage. In addition to the AC, there have been reports of MT activities about in the area. We wish you luck, Raven.**

Shinji reads the report one more time, replacing "Wonderer" with "Rei" in his mind. "Rei...why am I dead to you?"

"You say something, Shinji?"

The man turns around to see Cassandra stepping through the bathroom door, towel around her neck and covering her chest. She is only wearing that and short jean pants. Turning back to the computer quickly, Shinji mutters an answer. "N-nothing. Just reading my mission assignment again."

She is right behind Shinji now, leaning over his shoulder to look at what he was reading. His thoughts, however, begin to drift toward the towel that is now leaning in the opposite direction of Cassandra's beautiful, tanned breasts. "You get a good look?" Cassandra asks.

"Wh-What?" Shinji stutters, afraid his devious perverted thoughts were discovered. "The mission, did you get a good look at the mission parameters?" Cassandra asks again. "It says you're going against Wonderer from our last mission together. Do you realize that without some backup, you'll be toast?"

Shinji stands up from the computer and walks to the dresser to pull out his pilot suit. "I know that, but I need to ask her some questions before she takes me out."

Cassandra just looks at him with an eyebrow raised, not looking satisfied with the answer at all. "I can't lose two roommates in the same year, Star Crossed. You ask Mirage to send in some backup or I'm calling in a private helicopter to escort us _both_ to the area."

"You know you don't own a private helicopter, Bouquet. Besides, I won't get the reward if I go out like a vigilante. Sorry, Cassandra, but it's something I've got to do." Shinji zips up the back of his suit and walks to the door. He stops, turns to Cassandra who is still looking at the spot Shinji was in before, and tells her, "I'll come back."

The door closes, and a single tear runs down Cassandra's cheek. "Damn fool."

000

"_Okay, what has four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three in the evening?_" Jolt asks.

"A human." Asuka replies, nearly falling asleep in her AC. The two ACs were facing each other on the helicopter ride toward the desert, giving Asuka a good look at _Tempest_'s features, which seemed different from any AC she's seen. The AC is painted like an American flag, with the core colored red and blue with white details. The rest of the AC is colored white with red and blue details. The head piece, although in normal mode, glows a demonic green.

"_It's really a human?_" Jolt says, "_I thought it was some sort of a bicycle or something..._"

"Whatever." Asuka sighs, turning up the volume on her MP3 player. The bass of the song Turnkraft400 cannot block out the sound of the jet's engines as the aircraft propels the Ravens toward their destination. The sound reminds her of the year 2015, when she and her partner, Shinji, were being transported to the edge of Tokyo-2 to destroy an angel that could split itself in two. How can Asuka forget the purple-haired woman that barked orders in a time of crisis, or the boy who could not stand up to her crush, Kaji.

Asuka's daydreaming gets the best of her, as she just barely hears someone over the communication channel on her AC. She yanks of the headphones in her ears and speaks on the frequency that just broke off. "This is Deus Metal, could you repeat that?"

_"Repeating. Deus Metal._" a relaxed, lazy voice comes through.

"Ha ha. It is to laugh." Asuka snorts, not amused. "Repeat what you said before, unless you want me to come over there and pop you one in the mouth!"

The male voice leaves no pause in between her sentence and his. "_I said that ETA is under one minute, which is actually forty-five seconds now. When ETA reaches ten seconds, expect gunfire._"

"Roger." Asuka confirms, hearing Jolt and Steg say the same thing in the other AC. "I still can't understand how the two of you can pilot that thing together?"

"_We told you!_" Steg says, _"My brother handles the attacks, I handle the defense and maneuvering. It's not so hard!_"

Before Asuka can say anything more, vibrations soar through her cockpit, attracting her attention to the earth. There are a total of ten MTs, half of them looking similar to a heavyweight AC with a bazooka on it's right arm. The remaining five are close range MTs, using a shotgun and laser blade that could eliminate any careless AC in a pack.

"_Looks like it's hotter than expected. Bring the heat, Ravens!_" the now familiar voice trumpets as the two ACs are dropped from the helicopter. "_Alright, let's get down to it!_" Jolt shouts, his sister following suit.

"I'll see you later...Kaji!" Asuka says before activating her energy rifle and getting a clean shot at a close range MT, creating a massive hole where the pilot used to be.

000

"_The target should be here soon. Be on your guard, Wonderer._"

"I know." Rei says, strafing across the dark city streets. Because of the narrow environment, she was forced to switch from vertical missiles to regular pursuit missiles. So far, she did not have to spare any ammo, encountering no resistance as she boosted across the city, activating the security systems. She did not ask why Crest wanted to capture a civilian city, she merely did as she was ordered. So that her life wasn't complicated.

"_Rei!_"

This boy, however, is proving to be a complication worth eliminating.

00

Another security turret down, leaving only a quarter of the city to go. Yet Shinji still could not find Rei in this blacked out city. Because of this, he was forced to activate his night vision earlier. "Misato, how many turrets left?" he asks.

"_Looks like about three._" she replies. Shinji nods and proceeds to over boost across the street to the last part of Sector 157 he did not cover before. _Rei, I know you're here. I just need to ask one question._

A high pitched noise informs Shinji of a flurry of missiles burning a bee-line across the street. He boosts backwards and lets the missiles hit the building he was hiding behind. _Berserker_ peeks around the corner to confirm the target, but none is presented. Satisfied, he proceeds to boost down the street, checking his radar every few seconds for the one AC he needs to talk to...desperately.

000

Two rockets hit the side of _Red Hot_, almost knocking Asuka off balance. "White Comet, take out those turrets! I'm busy here!" she shouts through the radio, avoiding two missiles and taking cover behind a factory building. _"We're on it! Let's go, number two!"_ Jolt says through the radio.

As Asuka turns from the building to fire her rifle, she sees _Tempest_ blow away the stationary turrets with only a couple of shots from it's equipped linear rifle, landing behind a building she can't see over. _"That wasn't any fun!_" the two pilots echo over the radio. As Asuka boosts around another corner to face three more MTs, she can't shake the thought that they would be easy candidates for Evangelion pilots, considering how synchronized they were in their actions.

000

"President Keel."

The old man turns in his chair, facing the informant he had met earlier. Keel's expression was not one of rage, but of boredom. "What is it?" He says with a not-very-amused tone.

Unfazed, the man continues. "We have received reports that AC pilot Wonderer has indeed activated the defense turrets, however a Raven has been disabling them as quickly as they are enabled."

The president's expression does not change. He figured that something like this would happen. That is why he sent Rei in in the first place. What he couldn't understand was why the Raven was not eliminated before he could cause massive damage to this fraction of the plan.

Not saying a word, he reaches for the phone and presses a button on speed dial. Keel puts the phone to his ear, leaving the young man on the other side of the table to strain to hear the conversation. "Yes, get me pilot code A7B11-83...tell him it's Keel...WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S _GONE_!?" Keel shouts, banging his fist on the desk, startling the man opposite of him. "The mission? I didn't give him a mission...You're saying he assumed that this would happen?...Right, right." With that, he hangs up the phone.

Noticing the man wore a look of confusion on his face, Keel just gave him one reassuring line. "Not to worry, the backup is already on his way."

000

Avoiding another barrage of dual missiles, Shinji tries to reason with the drone. "Rei, just stop! What are you--!"

He is cut short by a scattered barrage of bullets, flying past most of his body, not leaving a scratch. _Wait, if those didn't hurt me, then she's not in range._ He looks at his radar and sees the enemy, which isn't the usual red color. "Wait, then that means...above!" The pilot boosts upward, thinking to catch Rei off guard by a sneak attack.

When he reached the top and landed on one of the metal bars supporting the structure, he was greeted with a fiery line of machine gun ammo, hitting his right arm and making it completely immobile. "Damn!" he curses, boosting backwards to anticipate another missile barrage.

Not remembering his radar, Shinji fails to notice the red dot advancing on him to his left, catching up to him with ease thanks to it's hover legs. Before getting a chance to react, he is tackled in mid-boost, forcing the two ACs to fall off the beam. They tossed and turned in the air, struggling to stay on top before they reached the ground.

Shinji finally forced Rei into a position he thought inescapable, locking his arms around her shoulders and crossing the legs across her cover legs, he prepared for the big boom. However, he didn't take into account the AC's newly equipped turning boosters. They activate, getting only the two ACs to land on their right arms and damaging their entire right side of the body. The machines could still function, however the pilots refused to move them.

Inside each cockpit, the AC's pilot was knocked out by a crash to the head, with a bead of blood trailing down the center of the forehead.

000

With the last MT blown to pieces by a rocket from _Red Hot_, both it and _Tempest_ rally up around what looks like a hangar for jet fighters and exchange information. "So, anything terribly interesting you found during the skirmish?" Asuka asks.

"_Nothing much,_" Steg replies, "_except for two enemies, but they're way below us. I don't think we have to worry about them._"

"_Still, I think we should check it out._" Jolt inquires. "_I just want to make sure I get some bonus credits for this._"

Asuka sits back in her chair, arguing between her logic and her greed. Unfortunately, as most would expect if they knew her well, greed took priority. "Alright, let's head downstairs and clean out the garage."

_"Roger that, Deus Metal_." Steg answers, _"There's a lift that can take us down. ETA approximately ten minutes."_

"Well then, let's get going! I don't want to lose these guys!"

00000

What suspense!

Oh, about the delay...well, I actually work on a computer that doesn't have internet so no one bothers me. When I'm done with a chapter, I upload it to my USB drive and bring it to the computer that DOES have internet. Recently, my USB just plain SUX. When I put it in any computer, the computer won't recognize it. Not even my 360 will love it! So I'm having to resort to drastic measures for now until I get a new USB.

However, Chapter 8 is up!


	8. Chapter 8: The Dark Sector

-1

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Chapter 8: The Dark Sector/The Day Time Pressed Replay

00000

He awoke to darkness. No matter how many times he turned, darkness greeted the boy as though someone but a trash bag over his head, giving him no sight to see yet still able to breathe. "Did I die?" Shinji thinks aloud, still drowsy and a bit anemic. "No, I didn't. I'm still here." Putting his hand across his face to rub his eyes, he feels something warm coating his nose. He takes his hand away from his face and begins to rub the warm substance between his fingers. "Heh...at least the entire cockpit doesn't smell like blood."

With the flip of a switch, the cockpit switched to emergency mode, bathing it in a red light. Shinji inputs a few commands, making blood marks on the keys. He looks up at the monitor which had a small smudge of his blood on it, which might explain why his head throbbed so much. The disoriented pilot's attention drew to the blue text displaying on the monitor that began to cycle the same message over and over again:

**ERROR IN COMMAND 4821-C**

Cursing, Shinji shut down the monitor displaying the AC version of the blue screen of death and proceeded to exit the cockpit.

000

_"Deus Metal, the signals are gone!"_ Jolt alerts Asuka, boosting above a building and landing next to _Red Hot_. The two ACs had polished off the entire area, leaving enough building up to still call it a residential area. Next to them are a couple of elevator shafts in the ground.

Asuka, not in the mood for empathy, snaps back at Jolt. "I see that! Perhaps they went deeper underground to a point where we can't see them."

_"Or perhaps they KO'ed each other?_" Jolt suggests.

"If you want that extra coinage, you'd better think positive!" Asuka reminds the pilot.

_"So what now, Deus?"_ Steg asks, her tone suggesting she didn't want to do this anymore.

"Well, I would've been down there by now if not for these damn locks! Seeing as we're still good as far as ammo and armor goes...ah, screw it!" Asuka positions _Red Hot_ and aims it's rockets on a closed elevator shaft. "We're going in!"

000

A sound echoed through the dark city as Shinji steps off his AC. "Was that...an explosion?" Shinji wonders. Not thinking much of it, he walks away from _Berserker_, as well as Rei's AC and proceeds to a nearby elevator shaft at the end of the highway the two pilots crash landed on.

Looking behind him to make sure he wasn't being followed by the blue-haired Raven (at least, that's what he thinks she is), Shinji presses a few buttons to go up to the surface. The response was similar to the monitor he just walked away from. "Just my luck." he murmurs before a hot streak brushes past his cheek.

000

"_Did you _have _to blow a hole in the floor?_" Jolt asks.

"You got a better idea, pretty boy?" Asuka retorts, not even glancing at his direction before boosting into the hole.

00

Steg looks up at her brother with concerning eyes. "She scares me sometimes, brother."

All Jolt could do was rub his eyes with his thumb and index finger before speaking again. "Well, let's follow her...Or it...Whatever that is." he orders her sister, still thinking how hard headed Asuka can be sometimes. _Pretty boy?_

000

"Rei, it doesn't have to end like this. The mission is over, our conflict is done--!"

Blinding pain rushed from Shinji's leg and out of his mouth, reacting by falling to the ground, holding what used to be where his kneecap was. Through the pain, he was able to make out Rei's next words: "My mission is not yet over, Pilot Star Crossed. My mission is to eliminate the Raven in this sector."

"Then..." Shinji pants. He takes a deep breath before shouting out the sentence most people would say during an ephemeral time of pain: "THEN SHOOT ME, DAMN IT!"

A moment of silence, then Rei announces her reply. "Goodbye, Pilot Star Crossed."

_Goodbye Rei._ Shinji thinks to himself, closing his eyes to the inevitable. _Goodbye Misato, goodbye Cassandra..._

00

"Goodbye, Pilot Star Crossed." Rei announces. The barrel of her .45 magnum is targeting the enemy's weak spot. The clip is full, the target is immobile, and no doubt the pilots both want to get this over with.

Yet she hesitates.

000

"The thirty! Twenty! Ten! TOUCHDOWN, _RED HOT_!" Asuka shouts as she descends and crashes into the ground.

000

A quake sent Shinji's executioner flying off her AC. There was no room for a graceful landing, considering Rei fell from two stories above the ground, and so crashed into the ground.

However, Shinji might have gotten the worst of it. With the sudden burst of wind going faster than thirty miles per hour, the pilot was pushed back into the wall of another building, almost knocking him unconscious. Ironically, it was the pain in his leg that kept him awake. His adversity was keeping him alive.

"Worst...luck..." Shinji sputters, not able to complete his thought before a boom caught his attention. What stepped outside the shattered elevator was a red-orange bipedal AC, aiming it's linear rifle at the downed ACs the two pilots just escaped from.

00

"Well, well! Looks like I caught you at a bad time!" Asuka retorts over the microphone. "Sorry if I barged in uninvited, but I couldn't help but notice the sweet aroma of free cash!"

_"Nothing is ever free, Asuka."_ Jolt argues, landing as he continues. "_So these are the targets from earlier?_"

Asuka shrugs. "Well, if they aren't, we can always sell the parts to help pay for the repairs."

_"Oh, Asuka, you're so frugal._" Steg says sarcastically.

00

"Gotta...get...up...!"

Shinji pushes himself up from the wall he was leaning on thanks to a pole he found on the ground. Now on his foot and walking pole, he begins to make a desperate attempt for the emergency elevator. He is going rather slow, considering his status.

However, gunshots from behind him cause him to go faster.

00

"_What's that?_" Jolt says, now alert.

Asuka looks around her monitors and notices flashing at the end of the road. She zooms in on the flashing and sees someone firing a gun in a certain direction. Zooming in once more...

00

"_Wonder girl!?_" a familiar voice shouts from the metal giant.

The words echo in her heart like an empty museum. Rei stops her firing and turns to the machine that called out the nickname given to her by a certain red-head she despised. "Second...Child?"

The cockpit opens up, emanating a red light from the controls and monitors inside. Rei only wonders if it really is her, brought back from the dead to take her away from this life. Take her away so she may stop her search for her commander she desperately missed.

However, the person who did reveal herself was not who she intended it to be at all. A girl with brown hair and blonde streaks rises from her seat. "What the hell are _you_ doing here? And what were you shooting at?"

_It is not the Second Child. Just another puppet._

Rei aims her weapon and fires once more.

00

"HEY!" Asuka yells before ducking down into the cockpit again. "What's your problem? You got a beef with me or something?" Looking around for the emergency provisions container, she finally reaches down under the seat and pulls out a metal box, which holds her weapon of choice in combat.

An Uzi.

"FINE! YOU WANNA PLAY!?" Asuka yells before firing at the blue-haired demon. Although, like a demon, Rei is unaffected by the shots and ducks behind a building wall, where she continues her assault.

_"Asuka! We don't have time for that!"_ Jolt shouts over the comm. "_We've got an MT inbound on our position! And it's coming in fast!_"

Asuka would have ignored the pilot and kept on shooting at her semi-new rival. However, the clip ran dry on her weapon of mass destruction. "Damn...FINE!" Asuka snorts before loading back up. When everything in the AC boots up, the pilot immediately glances at her radar. However, nothing is there.

"Jolt, is it not in range or what?" Asuka asks.

A slight pause, then Steg pipes up on the channel. _"No, it's here. But there's no reading on it. It probably has a cloaking device installed."_

_"Due to the darkness, this MT could be a problem."_ Jolt observes.

"No worries. I'll just send up a flare." Asuka says.

_"What do you mean--?_" Jolt asks, the rest of his sentence cut off by a shot from Asuka's linear rifle. "_Oh. _That_ flare."_ Jolt sighs.

00

Jolt mutes his microphone to share his thoughts with his sister. "I swear, one of these days she's going to run out of ammo from being so stupid. And when it does, I'll be laughing. I mean, I thought she was a cutie when I met her...okay, she's still fucking hot, but that attitude's gotta go. Right Steg? Steg?"

Steg was not paying attention to his rant, but instead observing a small door with a man walking through it, with the sign above it reading "Emergency Exit".

00

Shinji closes the door behind him quickly, locking it so nobody could follow him. _Halfway there,_ he thinks to himself as he turns toward his exit.

"Aw hell..."

The absence of an elevator ticks Shinji off a bit. What really got his spirits down was the presence of a set of spiral stairs. Going up in a clockwise direction. Without a railing on the right side of the stairs. The handicapped pilot looks down at his leg, and looks back up at the stairs. If not for his condition, he assumes that it would take him thirty minutes to get to the surface if he jogged.

But with his injury, it would take five times as long.

00

_Managed to get away. Need escape route,_ Rei cycles in her mind, dashing through the dark streets. She turns a corner and spots a transport truck of manageable size. _Acceptable_, she computes. The First Child dashes to the truck and breaks the glass on the driver side, slipping right in. _Now hotwiring. Engine started. Now taking nearest working exit,_ the human GPS recites in her mind, pushing the accelerator as far as it can go.

00

"_No offense, but I don't think your flare is working, Deus._" Jolt suggests.

Down to five shots, Asuka immediately commands the pilot to be silent in the most vulgar way possible before continuing to light up the dark sector. Finally, she catches a glimpse of a humanoid figure hiding under a bullet train track hanging from the ceiling.

"There! Shoot at that point!" Asuka says, confirming what she orders by firing two rockets at the point. _Tempest_ follows suit, firing it's machine gun in the direction. The shots kicked up so much smoke the darkness was barely visible behind it.

"_Steg, did we get it?_" Jolt asks.

"_I can't be sure because of the lack of radar support, but...oh God._"

"What?" Asuka asks. However, she doesn't wait for the response long before a long, screeching howl fills the void.

00

Shinji just managed to get to the fifth floor (at least, what felt like the fifth floor. There was no indication of how many there were) before a familiar, yet unfamiliar, scream shook the metal pole he desperately holds on to. His pupils shrink as he begins to have visions of the night against Sachiel, the day he was absorbed by the dark street, and the evening when he nearly killed Toji.

The former Eva pilot turns around and goes as quickly as he can back downstairs to confirm his fears.

00

The truck screeches to a halt on Rei's order. Her heart begins to beat faster not because of the sudden stop, but from the howl heard deep inside the heart of the city.

"Ikari...has returned."

00

"_What the hell is that!?_" Jolt shouts, with Steg's frightened screaming keeping Jolt on the line.

"No...it can't be!" Asuka worries, mainly saying it to herself. Her thoughts flash back to the time when Unit 01 broke free from the sphere that imprisoned it. How frightful that day was to her then. It was nothing compared to now. "Shinji!?"

The defender against the Angels, protector of humankind, and Shinji's heart and soul, Evangelion Unit 01 has returned from the depths of hell. It's red eyes stare deeply into Asuka's own, confirming that she would die this day.

00000

Um...yeah...this chapter's a bit gritty. If you have a Kill Bill-like imagination, then this should be rated R.

Okay, so not much progress as far as story goes, but I wrote this during class, so story wasn't an issue with me at the time.

So what's with the Eva? Will Shinji get away? And why is Rei a cold-blooded killer? Find out...later.


	9. Chapter 9: Demonic Past

00000

Chapter 9: Demonic Past/Remembering is Half the Battle

00000

The color faded from time, as well as the armor equipped on the Evangelion. With its horn broken, breast plate missing, and left shoulder gone, Unit 01 represented the look of an ancient monster. The berserk humanoid really sold the look with its red teeth bearing, along with its glowing, sinister red eyes.

The beast was all too familiar to Shinji Ikari, who used to pilot the giant. Even the red eyes sparked something in him, as those were the eyes that nearly took his friend away. Now it was here again. But how did it get here, and why? When did the dummy plug take over? These were all questions he didn't have an answer to.

_Does my father have something to do with this?_ He wonders. "No, not now. I need to get out of here!"

The former Eva pilot turns to the door to try his slow ascension once more. But another deep, horrendous howl stops him from moving. The pilot stands there, paralyzed by fear and curiosity. A bead of sweat slides down his jaw line from the heat, work, and anticipation. His head finally turns to face the beast that beckons to him, only to find Unit 01 staring directly into his eyes, ignoring the two ACs before it. It is at this moment that the two tortured souls looked into one another. Nothing was spoken, only felt and empathized with.

00

"Jolt! Shoot it! SHOOT IT!" Steg shouts, petrified of the beast that now haunts her.

"I'm trying to lock on to it!" the brother replies, "But there's no FCS on that thing! It must be using some sort of cloaking device—!"

Steg shouts again, startling her brother even more. "I DON'T CARE, JUST SHOOT IT!"

00

Through all of the shouting on the communication channel, Asuka was glued to her seat, entranced by the war-torn purple behemoth before her. "Shinji…I remember you now…but why did it take this thing to bring you back?" she asks herself. She notices then that the Eva is staring at something. Before she could figure out what caught its attention, the ancient monster lets out another deafening roar, like a man who was screaming at the top of his lungs with water in his mouth.

The beast turned and retreated into the darkness of the city. Only when the stomping had faded away did Asuka sigh and relax. She pinches her eyes as though to rub out the image. "Why does that devil always make me feel like shit?" the former red-head rants. "That idiot Shinji has scarred me for the last time. When I see him again, I'm going to rip off his arms and shove them up his…"

As she goes on her tirade, she practically ignores Jolt's voice. "_Did you hear me, Asuka?"_ he calls again. _"There's a survivor near the emergency exit! He looks to be in critical condition!"_

"…And once he's only a torso, I'll put a sheet over him and use him as a pillow!"

000

_A calm, soothing voice reaches Shinji's ears, like the crash of ocean waves in the distance. "That's good, Shinji." The voice tells him. "You're doing well. I'm proud of you."_

"_Misato?" Shinji calls out weakly_

His vision of darkness develops into a blurry vision of flashing lights, passing by quickly as though he was falling. The flashing slows to a steady pace, and was able to tell he is being escorted down a white hallway. Before he has a chance to examine anything else, he slips into darkness.

"_Shinji. You are not done yet. You must fight again." Another voice orders._

"_Father." Shinji sputters with distaste._

The darkness he resides in is once again interrupted by an image. The lights are even brighter now, with darkness covering the faces of…doctors? A hand holding a face mask obscures his vision even more. A valve is turned, and the mask begins to spout gas that, pleasantly, puts Shinji once again into his dark womb.

The image of Cassandra forms in his mind. Her eyes are concealed by loose hair hanging at the front of her face. "You better come back, Star Crossed." she says, her voice upbeat and cheerful. "If you die, I'll kill you again!"

Suddenly, her smile fades into a neutral emotion. Her hair fades from brown to blue. And a gun forms in her hand. "Goodbye, pilot Star Crossed." Rei says before lifting the gun and pulling the trigger. Shinji head whips back from the impact, and his head crashes to the ground, his body soon following. The warm blood seeps out from the hole where his eye used to be, staining his clothes. The motionless body was soon surrounded by his own pool of blood. The body begins to sink into the pool. Rei merely smiles with a grin so large, a jackal could not compare.

Ikari is completely enveloped by his blood, and then darkness saved him.

000

"Star Crossed? Pilot Star Crossed, are you awake?"

Shinji opens his eyes slowly, adjusting to the white room. He is lying in a hospital bed, with a gown to match. He directs his attention to the woman attending to him. "Welcome back to the living." Ritsuko announced. "How are you feeling?"

No surprise came to the former EVA pilot as he sat up and observed his doctor. "When did…?"

"I just transferred yesterday." She assures him. "But we're not talking about me here, are we? Looks like you had a bad run-in with an AC."

"I…guess… " he replies warily, still trying to collect his thoughts. _That's right, I woke up in _Berserker_, tried to escape, and then…_

The image of the ancient EVA creeps into his mind. He remembers how it seemed to stare at him with a glare that him feel like he betrayed it. Shaking the thought away, he brought himself back to life. "How's my AC?"

Ritsuko takes off her glasses and looks at him. "_Berserker_ is a bit torn apart, but still salvageable. According to your insurance policy, you're covered financially because you were piloting in a dangerous area. You'll be back to your regular missions in only a week."

The pilot just leaned back into his bed. "Right." he mumbles.

000

"Jeez, this thing is junk!" the chief engineer shouts. "You want us to salvage it!?"

"Just do what you can with it!" Cassandra retaliates. "I don't care if you have to order a new part, I'll pay for it--!"

"Throw it away."

Cassandra looks behind her and sees Shinji limping to her. His head was bandaged, as well as the leg that was injured with the confrontation with Rei. "Sell whatever you can, but throw the rest of it away. I've got a better design in mind."

"Shinji…"

0000

The announcer's voice shakes the arena, which seems like a prelude to the chaos that would ensue. "The challenged opponent in the red corner, he weighs in at 5589 tons and has an explosive temper! Ladies and gentleman, give it up for TEMPEST!!!"

The tank rolls up, his guns at the ready. Inside, the pilot's finger is already on both triggers, ready to take down the enemy with one shot. "Come on, get it started already!"

"And in the blue corner, weighing in at a mere 2408 tons, but still has enough sparks to make a display! Let's hear it for BERSERKER!!!"

000

Hearing his AC's name, Shinji guides his machine onto the stage. He looks over his control panel and weapons to make sure he has everything. Finally satisfied with the setup, Shinji puts his hands on the throttles and prepares for combat.

00

The real name of the AC should have been _Berserker, Mk. II_. The entire robot has had a massive overhaul, no longer handling the middle-weight class. Disposing of the missile launchers, the only two weapons it is wielding is a minor pistol and the MOONLIGHT. With the armor less than average, one look over on this machine and it would not even pass the safety test against a grenade launcher.

000

"HA! What is that thing?" the itchy pilot shouts through the radio. "You've got some nerve bringing that twig out to spar with me!"

000

The crowd becomes still, anticipating the countdown to the carnage. Suddenly, all the windows around the arena light up with the words "READY". Before the words changed to "GO," the ACs can be heard starting up all around. Once the buzzer went off, a humongous explosion emanates from _Tempest_, barreling straight for _Berserker_.

000

"Ha! One hit KO, baby!" the man prompts, assured that he has kept his place in the ranking. However, another look at his HUD would prove otherwise.

000

_Berserker_ had flown above the explosion, now falling to the ground in front of _Tempest_. Before the heavy-weight can get another shot off, _Berserker_ whips out the MOONLIGHT and rips through the joint holding the mini grenade launcher, while with the other hand aims its pistol at the head of _Tempest_ and opens three shots into its metal skull.

000

"Son of a bitch! I can't see anything!" he shouts. The screen, that was once static, now reads "UNABLE TO CONTINUE COMBAT" in white bold letters in front of a red, blinking screen. "AUGH!!!"

000

"And the winner is our underdog of the day, BERSERKER!!!"

As the announcer praises the name, Shinji steps out of the seat and stands up to greet the crowd that is protected by everything-proof glass. His face is not that of joy or rage: it is just as blank as Rei's face all those years before.

00000

Sorry for the late arrival guys. I've been veeeeeeery busy with other projects and activities. Please forgive me? Anyway, this is a short chapter, but I'll make up for it. Peace.


End file.
